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Communist China - People's Liberation Army (PLA), which launched the surprise counter-offensive against US/UN forces, can trace its origins to late-1920s China civil war era fighting mainly against Nationalist Chinese forces (aka Kuomintang or KMT). Despite their patriotic war fervor, Communist China and the PLA only fought marginally during WW2 and preferred China's central mountain refuges during the 8 years of war against Japan. When the war ended, civil war resumed between Nationalist and Communist forces, culminating in PLA victory on Mainland China by 1949. People Liberation Army - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army
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Chinese Communist officially classified PLA forces in Korea as volunteers, thereby formally skating around accusation of direct foreign interference. China and Korea have been traditional allies for over 500 years, such as mutually repulsing Japan's 16th-century invasion of Korean peninsula. With victory in China civil war, Chinese Communist feared US/UN pretext of unifying North and South Korea as an excuse for invading China's Manchuria region (nation's main industrial center) and overthrowing its regime.
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1950s PLA was a classic Peasant Army, trained in insurgency tactics, with no officer ranks, abundant political commissars, and ever ubiquitous nature of calling each other Comrade Colleague or Comrade Officer. Photo above depicts PLA volunteers marching toward Korean front, armed with light infantry equipment (ex. rifles, pistols, machine guns, submachine guns, mortars, grenades). Although Soviet forces gave one million tons of captured Japanese equipment to Chinese Communists (ex. tanks, trucks, artillery), necessity for stealthy incursion prohibited motorized deployment.
- Communist China's flag evolved from multiple versions since 1920s. Modern variant is a large yellow
 star in canton, surrounded by 4 smaller yellow stars. Depending on which Chinese you ask, there seems to be different interpretations. Some say large star represents Chinese Communist Party (as omnipotent leadership of society), four smaller stars are rubber-stamping political parties permitted to exist within China. Other say large star represents Han-Chinese ethnic majority (circa 96% out 1.3 billion people), other smaller stars represent major ethnic minorities (ex. Mongolian, Manchurian, Tibetan, Korean). Still others claim larger star is the Communist Party, smaller stars are socio-economic classes recognized in Communism (ex. farmers, merchants, cadres, party leaders). So take your pick.... China flag - www.fotw.net/flags/cn.html
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Rollover : PLA 4th Field Army preparing for advance, a variety of American, Japanese, British, Soviet weapons were carried. Slotted aprons for ammunition and supplies are typical for PLA gear. Soldier in foreground carrying US-made Thompson submachine, probably seized from Chinese Nationalist forces during the late-1940s civil war.
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Some PLA volunteers were impressed into service by their commissars. They were either ex-Chinese Nationalist soldiers or common criminals. Their choice was either to volunteer for frontline service or be transferred to slave labor camps. When Korean truce was signed in 1953, several thousand Chinese POWs refused to be repatriated back to China and defected to US/UN forces, which was a cold-war propaganda windfall for the US.
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In 3 years of Korean warfare, PLA suffered about 500,000 casualties in human wave frontal assaults. Their insurgent tactics were not conducive to rugged open terrain and trench-warfare combat. Even China's Communist Chairman : Mao Zedong (also romanized as Mao Tse-Tung), had his son killed in combat. Authoritarian and omnipotent, Mao had three wives and many mistresses during his reign, thus the Chinese privately called him the real last emperor of China. Mao Zedong - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao
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