Ancient Kingdoms Fuel China and South Korea's Dispute Over History and Identity

A Jilin official's call brings an old dispute back into focus

Huang Qiang, the Communist Party chief of China's Jilin province, has called for clarification of the history of Buyeo, Goguryeo and Balhae, three ancient kingdoms whose territories stretched across parts of today's northeastern China and Korean Peninsula. His remarks have revived a dispute that reaches far beyond the naming of old states, threatening a fragile improvement in relations between China and South Korea.

As of July 27, 2025, the controversy connects provincial politics, national identity, museum displays and concerns about the future of North Korea. South Koreans regard Goguryeo and Balhae as central to their country's history. China places these kingdoms within the historical development of its northeastern provinces, a region with significant ethnic Korean populations and strategically important borders.

The immediate disagreement is about how to describe societies that existed long before today's national boundaries. The larger argument is about who can claim their legacy, and what that claim means for the people and governments living on those lands now.

China's Northeast Project brought the dispute to the center of diplomatic relations in the early 2000s by classifying Goguryeo and Balhae as local Chinese regimes rather than Korean kingdoms. Both North and South Korea viewed that approach as an attempt to take possession of their heritage, with possible consequences for future territorial claims.

Huang's intervention shows why the controversy has survived the project's conclusion in 2007. Historical classifications can become statements about belonging: which communities are included in a nation's past, whose ancestors built its institutions, and which government gets to explain that history to the world.

Three kingdoms across today's borders

Buyeo, Goguryeo and Balhae flourished between the second century BCE and the 10th century CE. Their lands covered areas now divided between northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula, making their history difficult to fit neatly into a map of present countries.

Buyeo existed from the second century BCE until 494 CE. Goguryeo, which lasted from 37 BCE to 668 CE, was the largest and most powerful of Korea's Three Kingdoms. It controlled extensive territory in Manchuria and northern Korea. Balhae emerged after Goguryeo's fall as a successor state and lasted from 698 to 926 CE.

These kingdoms developed sophisticated cultures, centralized governments and military systems. Centralized government means that political authority was organized around a ruling center, rather than being left entirely to separate local communities. Their institutions helped shape the region's politics, culture and sense of identity.

The kingdoms dealt with Chinese dynasties as both rivals and tributaries, as described in the Three Kingdoms overview. Tributary relations involved acknowledging a more powerful ruler through tribute. At the same time, these states adopted elements of Chinese culture while maintaining distinct identities.

For South Koreans, Goguryeo and Balhae represent ancient roots, resilience and cultural achievement. For China, their place in the northeast's history is connected to its account of a country made up of many ethnic groups. The same kingdoms therefore occupy different positions in the two countries' national stories.

How the Northeast Project changed the argument

Chinese historians began framing ancient states in Manchuria as predecessors of modern Chinese ethnic groups during the 20th century. That approach drew on Western ideas about race and nationhood and supported a historical narrative intended to reinforce China's territorial integrity and identity as a country with multiple ethnic communities.

The government sponsored Northeast Project intensified the disagreement in the early 2000s. By treating Goguryeo and Balhae as local Chinese regimes, it placed them inside China's national history. Koreans saw that classification as a challenge to their own understanding of where their country came from.

South Korea established the Goguryeo Research Foundation and made diplomatic protests. The dispute drew wider attention when China registered Goguryeo sites as UNESCO World Heritage and removed references to the kingdom from its official pages about Korean history.

The project also had a security dimension. Its interpretation of the past was connected to managing ethnic minorities and protecting borders, including concern about possible Korean territorial claims if North Korea became unstable or the peninsula reunited. A history war analysis discusses that connection between historical research, border security and minority policy.

For Beijing, incorporating these kingdoms into Chinese history supports its account of why the northeast belongs within China. For Seoul, the same interpretation weakens recognition of kingdoms that Koreans consider their ancestors' states. That conflict helps explain why an academic project produced government protests and public anger.

The dates behind a lasting controversy

The ancient kingdoms existed across more than a millennium, while the modern dispute developed over decades. Keeping those two timescales separate helps explain why the controversy involves both archaeological heritage and current diplomatic decisions.

• Second century BCE to 494 CE: Buyeo flourished in the region covered by the dispute.
• 37 BCE to 668 CE: Goguryeo became the largest and most powerful of Korea's Three Kingdoms.
• 698 to 926 CE: Balhae developed as a successor state after Goguryeo's fall.
• 20th century: Chinese historians increasingly connected ancient Manchurian states to modern Chinese ethnic groups.
• Early 2000s: China's Northeast Project intensified disagreement over the historical identity of Goguryeo and Balhae.
• 2007: The Northeast Project ended, and the two countries sought to keep historical disputes from damaging their broader relationship.
• 2025: A golden seal linked to a Goguryeo marquis sold at auction in Hong Kong, while Huang Qiang's call renewed attention to the kingdoms' history.

The end of the Northeast Project did not end the disagreement. Museums, heritage applications, artifacts and later official comments continued to bring the same competing interpretations into public view.

Why historical claims affect public feeling

South Koreans often understand the dispute as a challenge to cultural heritage and national legitimacy. Goguryeo's place in Korean history carries emotional weight because it represents a powerful ancient kingdom, rather than simply an entry in a chronology.

An academic study of nationalism describes how these historical disputes affect foreign policy attitudes. Exposure to Chinese claims over Goguryeo reduces Korean pride and increases hostility toward China, especially among people with strong nationalist feelings. Pride, anger and resentment can turn an argument about an ancient kingdom into a judgment about a modern neighbor.

Young South Koreans have shown growing hostility toward China. Surveys and media accounts connect that mistrust to historical disputes alongside trade disagreements and arguments about cultural appropriation, meaning claims that another country is taking cultural traditions as its own.

North Koreans also view Chinese claims over their history with suspicion, despite their government's close relationship with Beijing. National identity can therefore create friction on both sides of the peninsula, even though North and South Korea have very different political systems and relations with China.

China approaches the issue through its concern for internal stability and the unity of a country with many ethnic communities. Including these kingdoms in Chinese history is seen as a way to discourage separatist sentiment among minorities along its borders. The two sides attach different political meanings to the same historical classification.

Museums and a golden seal carry the dispute abroad

Seo Kyoung-duk, a South Korean civic activist, objected when a Japanese museum used Chinese names for Balhae. His response explained why the presentation of history outside China and Korea matters to people involved in the dispute:

A history museum has a duty to present accurate history to visitors. Inaccurate portrayals of history overseas could legitimize these false claims and must be corrected.

Seo's objection focused on the authority museums hold. Visitors often encounter an unfamiliar kingdom for the first time through a display label. The name and description used there can shape how they understand its connection to modern countries.

In 2025, a rare golden seal believed to have been bestowed by China's Western Jin dynasty on a Goguryeo marquis sold for a record sum at a Hong Kong auction. Its inscription reads: "Marquis of Goguryeo, Aligned with Righteousness, Conferred by the Jin Dynasty." The seal offers a tangible example of the political relationships between Chinese dynasties and the ancient Korean kingdoms.

Collectors and historians prize objects of this kind because they preserve evidence of alliances, cultural exchange and changing power relationships. Their sale can also revive arguments over rightful ownership and historical meaning. The exact auction price and the date of Huang's remarks were not specified.

The seal brings together two elements often pulled apart in modern arguments: Goguryeo's distinct identity and its dealings with a Chinese dynasty. Its inscription makes that relationship visible through a title granted to a named category of ruler, a marquis.

UNESCO recognition and the work of preserving heritage

China and Korea have sought UNESCO recognition for sites associated with Goguryeo and Balhae, presenting them as parts of their respective national heritage. International recognition gives these places a wider audience and makes the language used to describe them especially sensitive.

South Korea has invested heavily in protecting and promoting its historical sites. It has more than 50 entries across UNESCO's lists, including the Baekje Historic Areas and the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. The annals are the world's longest uninterrupted dynastic chronicles, a continuing written record of a dynasty's rule.

Gongju and Buyeo have also used the Smart Town Challenge to connect tourism with digital services. Augmented reality, which adds digital information to a view of the physical world, and online guides help visitors engage with historic places. Community involvement is part of the effort to support local economies and strengthen cultural identity.

Population decline in historic cities makes sustaining those efforts harder. Differences between generations in their use of technology can also limit participation, particularly when tourism services and heritage information move onto digital platforms.

South Korea's Special Act on Preservation, Management and Use of World Heritage requires local governments to involve residents in protecting heritage. Putting that requirement into practice remains a challenge. For residents, preservation is therefore tied to everyday questions about participation, tourism and the future of their communities.

North Korea makes the dispute a security issue

North Korea's future gives the historical argument a strategic dimension. Some interpretations of China's policy view the Northeast Project as preparation for a possible crisis in North Korea, including the collapse of its regime or eventual Korean reunification.

Under that interpretation, presenting ancient kingdoms as Chinese could support a claim of historical entitlement to intervene in the region. The concern becomes sharper if reunification creates a Korea aligned with Western countries along China's border.

China's interest in keeping North Korea as a buffer state is central to this analysis of border strategy. A buffer state separates larger powers or rival political systems. A unified Korea backed by the United States is described as a major concern for Chinese policymakers because it would bring a different strategic relationship to that border.

North Korea has responded to the historical dispute by banning Chinese movies and internal lectures that accuse China of distorting Korean history. The restriction on critical lectures also reflects the government's effort to control information and prevent suspicion of its powerful neighbor from spreading.

Pyongyang faces competing pressures. It seeks to protect the historical narrative supporting its own legitimacy while maintaining close ties with Beijing. Controlling cultural imports and discussion of Chinese historical claims allows it to manage what its population hears about that tension.

Diplomacy has contained the argument without resolving it

China and South Korea have periodically tried to stop historical disputes from damaging their wider relationship. After the Northeast Project concluded in 2007, both sides agreed to prevent these controversies from spilling into broader relations. China promised not to use the revised history in official textbooks.

Diplomatic channels remain open, but the argument continues through official remarks, museum exhibits and the presentation of world heritage sites. Huang's call illustrates how quickly a historical issue can return during a period when governments are trying to improve relations.

Scholars have proposed recognizing each nation's sense of psychological ownership over history. That means acknowledging the emotional attachment people feel toward a kingdom or cultural tradition they regard as part of their collective past.

Another proposed approach is to give greater attention to cultural connections rather than exclusive possession. The kingdoms' dealings with Chinese dynasties, their adoption of some Chinese cultural elements and their distinct identities offer material for that discussion. Respecting those connections could help reduce tension without requiring people to abandon their attachment to their heritage.

For China and South Korea, the practical task remains managing a disagreement that touches national pride, border concerns and public attitudes at the same time. The ancient kingdoms continue to influence modern politics because decisions about their history carry meaning for both countries today.

Key Points

• Jilin party chief Huang Qiang's call to clarify the history of Buyeo, Goguryeo and Balhae has renewed a dispute between China and South Korea.
• The kingdoms occupied areas now spanning northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula, and are central to competing accounts of national history.
• China's Northeast Project classified Goguryeo and Balhae as local Chinese regimes, prompting Korean objections, research initiatives and diplomatic protests.
• Museum descriptions, UNESCO recognition and a golden seal sold in Hong Kong in 2025 have carried the controversy beyond textbooks.
• South Korea is combining heritage preservation with digital tourism, while population decline and differences in technology use complicate local participation.
• The dispute affects public attitudes toward China and intersects with concerns about North Korean instability and Korean reunification.
• Agreements reached after the project ended in 2007 helped manage diplomatic friction, but competing historical claims continue.