They walked from a low-tech war where a couple decades old T-34s were a strong tactical advantage onto a battlefield with anti-tank weapons that could peel a T-34 like a potato. They had some piston engine fighters that dated back the War with China. and some Il-10s they had bought from the Soviets at fire sale prices. They couldn't even reach the altitude the UN B-52s were bombing from and the bombers were 180mph faster. UN fighers make mincemeat out of the Chinese piston engined CAS aircraft.Much appreciated Calbear.
That KIA ratio discrepancy between both sides is really something. I suppose the Cabal command's military acumen couldn't make up for the fact that they were coming fresh from a continuous, decades-long series of conflicts that had really weakened China and had not yet recovered to develop a sufficient industrial-technological base to modernise?
That they lasted five years was a testament to their skills in low tech, out in the boonies, "no, we can't get a tank up there" positional fighting, along with a reluctance among the UN senior combat leadership to spend blood like water. Pretty much what the PRC's "volunteers" did IOTL but without any MiG 15s to harass the bomber formations. Americans finally got tired of taking casualties and having to explain to the voters why they were paying some much taxes to support a military that "couldn't defeat a bunch of yahoos with 50 year old rifles".