People's Volunteer Army

The (Chinese) People's Volunteer Army (PVA or CPVA; ) was the armed forces deployed by the People's Republic of China during the Korean War. Although all units in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army were actually transferred from the People's Liberation Army (the official name of the Chinese armed forces) under orders of the Chinese Communist Party, the People's Volunteer Army was separately constituted in order to prevent an official war with the United States. The People's Volunteer Army entered Korea on October 19, 1950, and completely withdrew by October 1958. The nominal commander and political commissar of the CPVA was Peng Dehuai before the ceasefire agreement in 1953, although both Chen Geng and Deng Hua served as acting commander and commissar after April 1952 due to Peng's illness. The initial (October 25 – November 5, 1950) units in the CPVA included 38th, 39th, 40th, 42nd, 50th, 66th Army totaling 250,000 men, and eventually about 3 million Chinese civilian and military personnel served in Korea by July 1953.