Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ii / Paper 1 / 1I / a / Solution

The Chinese remainder theorem says that if the positive integers $m_1,\dots ,m_r$ are pairwise coprime and $M={\prod }_i{m}_i$, then for arbitrary residue classes $a_i(\mathrm{mod}{m}_i)$ there is a unique residue class $x(\mathrm{mod}M)$ satisfyingEquivalently, reduction is a ring isomorphism

For existence, put $M_i=M/m_i$. Pairwise coprimality gives $\gcd (M_i,m_i)=1$, so Bézout's identity supplies an integer $u_i$ with $u_i{M}_i\equiv 1(\mathrm{mod}{m}_i)$. Thenhas the required residues, because every term except the $i$th is divisible by $m_i$. If $x$ and $y$ are two solutions, each $m_i$ divides $x-y$. Pairwise coprimality then implies that their product $M$ divides $x-y$, proving uniqueness modulo $M$.