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Why was the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir considered a geographic victory for China?

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Battle of the Chosin Reservior — Battle of the Chosin Reservoir Men and armor of the U.S. 1st Marine Division during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, December 1950.

The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir is considered a geographic victory for China because the campaign successfully forced the United Nations X Corps to evacuate from North Korea entirely.12

Instead of being able to redeploy to the port of Wŏnsan to maintain a presence in the north, the X Corps was compelled to retreat to South Korea, where it was integrated into the Eighth Army in January 1951. This withdrawal effectively ceded the territory the UN forces had previously occupied in the region.23

Despite this geographic outcome, the campaign was costly for the Chinese forces. The 1st Marine Division successfully fought its way to the coast, rendering several Chinese divisions ineffective and inflicting heavy casualties on the Ninth Army Group, which was forced to withdraw from the front until March 1951.12