ABSTRACT
The Korean war was for China a severe test of its capability to survive in the world of the cold, and sometimes hot, war. Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army first clashed with American troops in Korea four months after the war had begun, cautiously and tentatively as Peking still hoped to avoid a wider conflict. The causes of the actual outbreak of war between North and South Korea on 26 June 1950 are shadowy. From the viewpoint of the Chinese and North Koreans, they were negotiating with an adversary whose position on the one issue which held up a settlement was basically un-negotiable. A peaceful settlement in Korea, to be followed hopefully by a wider settlement of ‘other Far Eastern questions’ had been a theme of Chinese statements since the New Year People’s Daily editorial for 1952.
