A survey: China and the Korean War

This paper is based on a series of recently disclosed Chinese archival documents on the Korean War and recently published memoirs of Chinese officials directly involved in the war. It attempts to piece together a picture of China and Mao Zedong's involvement in the Korean War, a picture that had been fairly blurred until recently. It has been more or less established by existing studies that China had a strong inclination to participate in the war, and that its participation had a lasting effect on the subsequent modernization of the People's Liberation Army. But this paper analyzes in greater detail the continuity between China's participation in the war and the Chinese Revolution, and the process of military preparations before its participation. The paper also meticulously traces the process of decision-making by the Chinese leadership from the execution of the First and Second Campaigns until the commencement of the armistice talks, thereby identifying China's diplomatic intents in anticipation of the international political climate in the post-ceasefire era, and the specific role China played in the drawing of the 38th parallel.