| ID | 171080 |
| Title Proper | Domestic instability as a key factor shaping China’s decision to enter the Korean War |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Daekwon, Son |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This study explores the domestic determinants of China’s intervention in the Korean War. Since the war, scholars have produced a large number of studies on the motivations behind China’s intervention in the war. These previous studies paid scant attention to domestic aspects, all of them assuming, albeit implicitly, that Party leaders could readily harness all available domestic resources and devote them to their political ends and that the public was willing to sacrifice their material resources and lives in order to satisfy the leaders’ political goals. By contrast, this study, based on extensive newly unearthed archival documents, argues that very unfavorable domestic circumstances helped shape the CCP’s strategy both before and after the outbreak of the Korean War. The domestic challenges not only provided the rationale for the CCP’s opposition to Kim Il-Sung’s Korean War plan before June 1950 but also gave an internal impetus for China’s vacillation in decision making and affected Mao’s final proactive decision to enter the war in October 1950. |
| `In' analytical Note | China Journal Vol. 83; Jan 2020: p. 34–57 |
| Journal Source | China Journal No 83 |
| Key Words | China Communist Party ; Korean War ; Domestic Instability ; Domestic Challenges ; China’s Intervention |