Christmas in the United States, Canada, and Europe is marked by celebration, gift-giving, and, for Christians, commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, in China, the government is attempting to bestow a new meaning on December 24—specifically to urge public remembrance of the major battle at Chosin Reservoir (or “Lake Changjin”) in 1950, during the Korean War. The decision is unusual, as that battle had ended by mid-December, well before the date commonly associated with Christmas Eve in the West.

The Battle of Chosin Reservoir occurred between November and December 1950. That battle pitted the United Nations forces, notably the US Marine Corps, against massive Chinese intervention forces—in what historians recount as being Arctic-level winter conditions. 

After the successful UN landings at Inchon, the US-led United Nations force sped northward under the command of US Army General Douglas MacArthur. The UN force approached the Yalu River along the Chinese border, prompting a ferocious response from the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA). Beijing would not countenance what it perceived to be a hostile force along its border with North Korea, and Mao Zedong, China’s communist ruler at the time, ordered a force of hundreds of........

© The National Interest