Why Did 14,000 Chinese War Prisoners Choose to Go to Taiwan in 1953 (Hint: It wasn’t for ’freedom’)

When the Korean war ended the United States repatriated over 14,000 Chinese POWs to Taiwan and said that these Chinese “volunteered“ to go to Taiwan because “they hated communism and choose freedom“. This is actually not true and this story is full of holes. Why would Chinese pows want to go to Taiwan away from their families in Mainland China? it doesnt make sense. It turns out that in the POW camps of Korea, the Americans put the Chinese prisoners with former Kuomintang connections and the most die hard anti CPC beliefs into positions of power and authority to manage the other prisoners. These people acted like “Kapos“. The Kapos forced many of the Chinese POWs were coerced to get tattoos with anti Communist slogans like “retake mainland China“ “destroy CCP“ “destroy Russia“ onto their arms and bodies (see attached images) under the fear of being beaten.