Resist America, Aid Korea
항미원조
China’s official name for its intervention in the Korean War and the domestic mobilisation campaign around it. In October 1950 the “Chinese People’s Volunteers” under Peng Dehuai crossed the Yalu, drove the UN forces south of the 38th parallel and fought until the 1953 armistice. At home the “Resist America, Aid Korea, protect the home and defend the country” campaign organised weapons donations, production drives and anti-American propaganda, and accelerated the suppression of counter-revolutionaries and thought reform. China cemented its alliance with the Soviet Union and claimed great-power standing, while the Taiwan question hardened.
In depth
The decision to intervene was taken in early October 1950 after fierce debate in the Politburo. The judgement that the UN advance after Inchon threatened Manchuria, Stalin’s promise and then withdrawal of air cover, and Kim Il Sung’s appeal for help were all entangled; Mao saw intervention as the way to consolidate the new regime and win Moscow’s trust. The label “Volunteers” was a device to avoid open war with the United States.
Domestic mobilisation was run by the Resist America Aid Korea association. Patriotic pledges, production and thrift drives and a campaign to donate fighter aircraft spread through town and country, and propaganda painting America as a “paper tiger” shaped mass anti-American sentiment. The suppression of counter-revolutionaries and the thought reform of intellectuals were justified in the name of the war.
The war cost China hundreds of thousands of casualties and a heavy fiscal burden, but the new regime gained confidence from having stood against the strongest power in the world. Soviet aid and military modernisation followed, and the death in action of Mao’s son Mao Anying later became a widely told part of Mao’s personal story. The armistice was signed at Panmunjom in July 1953.