The Chinese and Korean comrades should unite as closely as brothers, go through thick and thin together, stick together in life and death and fight to the end to defeat their common enemy. The Chinese comrades must consider Korea’s cause as their own and the comrades and fighters must be instructed to cherish every hill, every river, every tree and every blade of grass in Korea and take not a single needle or a single thread from the Korean people, in the same way as we feel about our own country and treat our own people. This is the political basis for winning victory. So long as we act this way, final victory will be assured.

(This was the directive to the Chinese People’s Volunteers by Mao Zedong on January 19,1951)

(CIIC 10/30/2000)