The remains of 43 Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) soldiers who died during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953) were returned to China on Thursday from the Republic of Korea (ROK).
A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft carrying the remains and 495 items of personal belongings of the fallen soldiers landed in Shenyang, the capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, at noon.
The remains will be laid to rest in a martyrs’ cemetery in Shenyang.
After the ROK handed over the martyrs’ remains and their accompanying belongings to the Chinese side in Incheon on Thursday morning, China held a memorial ceremony at Incheon International Airport. The Chinese national anthem was played during the ceremony, and each casket was draped with the national flag. Attendees bowed three times to the martyrs before their remains were placed on the plane.
Between 2014 and 2023, China and the ROK, in accordance with international laws and humanitarian principles, completed 10 consecutive handovers involving the remains of 938 CPV martyrs in the ROK, along with related artifacts.
The Korean War broke out in June 1950, eight months after the People’s Republic of China was founded. At the request of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Chinese ground forces under the CPV entered the Korean Peninsula on October 19, 1950. A total of 2.9 million CPV soldiers joined the war that lasted almost three years, with more than 360,000 killed or injured.