China's Korean war veterans still waiting for answers, 60 years on

Sixty years after the fighting ended in Korea, some soldiers who rallied to fend off the "American imperialists" are still seeking answers about China's involvement in the costly conflict.

Beijing remains reluctant to declassify documents that might finally shed light on the decision to rush to North Korea's aid in 1950, resulting in the deaths of between 149,000 and 400,000 Chinese soldiers.

Supported by decades of Communist Party propaganda, many veterans of the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) share the official view that intervention was necessary to protect China from US aggression. But others are sceptical.

"All the cruel and bloody images I witnessed during the war are still vividly emblazoned in my mind," said Zhang Zeshi , who joined the fighting at 21 and was taken prisoner. "I regretted joining the war when I found out the US had no plan to invade China at that time."

Zhang, who abandoned his physics studies at Tsinghua University to join the Communist Party in 1948, said China should at least tell the truth about "for whom it fought the war". "All humankind should learn lessons and work to prevent any wars from happening again," he said.

The Korean war was the first major conflict of the cold war, pitting the communist North, supported by China and the Soviet Union, against the capitalist South, supported by a United States-led UN coalition.