What Have Mainland Chinese Refugees Done for Taiwan?
A Response to Institutional Prejudice and Historical Amnesia
The Absurd Contributions of Mainland Chinese
How ridiculous of the mainland Chinese to improve Taiwan’s population quality! They implemented nine-year compulsory education—something the Japanese colonial authorities never provided—giving every Taiwanese child free access to education and equal opportunity. How foolish!
How preposterous of mainland Chinese conservatives to provide scholarships allowing Taiwanese to study abroad for PhDs! Yet there they were, funding foreign education for Taiwanese youth while many of their own children studied at home.
Military Sacrifice and Civil Constraint
How incredibly stupid those elderly mainland soldiers must have been. They possessed weapons and military force. They could have burned, pillaged, and plundered Taiwan. They had every opportunity to exploit these islands for themselves.
Instead, these fools chose to sacrifice their lives defending Taiwan against communist invasion. They “penned themselves in” like stray dogs confined to shabby military villages, the eyuan (military dependents’ villages), where they subsisted in simplicity and deprivation.
The cruelty! They died fragmented into pieces, these so-called mainland pilot “pigs”—choosing to die defending Taiwan’s freedom. For forty years, the government paid only 6,000 yuan in survivor compensation to the families of these dead heroes. What a despicable people!
Land Reform: A Revolutionary Mistake
How moronic of mainland Chinese administrators to implement land reform! They could have simply seized all agricultural land and kept it for themselves and other mainland Chinese.
Instead, these idiots distributed land to 100% of poor peasants, transforming them all into property-owning landowners. Now consider the contemporary political embarrassment: Today’s political elites include descendants of former landlords whose family estates were forcibly subdivided by this reform. Is it any wonder some harbor lasting resentment toward the generation that enabled this social revolution?
Economic Development and Employment
It was equally asinine how mainland Chinese looked at Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. Newspaper classified ads commonly read: “Workers needed: ten positions; mainlanders and Hakka people need not apply.”
How ridiculously altruistic these rejected mainland Chinese were! Despite this discrimination, they introduced investment capital, technology, and skilled manpower. They established export-processing zones that created employment opportunities for Taiwanese workers and laid the foundation for Taiwan’s light industrial sector.
These economic “idiots” built the very platform that enabled Taiwan’s later prosperity.
Economic Miracle’s Hidden Architects
How contemptible of these mainland Chinese “pigs” to appeal to brilliant expatriate scientists to return home and contribute to Taiwan’s development.
Through these pleas, they attracted:
- Li Guoding (李國鼎) – Pioneer of Taiwan’s systematic economic planning
- Sun Yunxuan (孫運璿) – Economic architect of Taiwan’s industrial transformation
- Zhao Yaodong (趙耀東) – Financial strategist and administrator
These figures established Taiwan’s stable economic policies and manufactured what international observers called the “Taiwan Economic Miracle.”
Yet do we thank them? No—we blame them for their ethnicity and their historical moment.
Military Heroism and Sentimental Recognition
How cruel were those mainland Chinese fighter pilots! Pursuing glorious death defending the Republic of China, many crashed spectacularly. They did not die comfortably. They shattered into fragments across Taiwan’s skies.
Yet even these fragmented deaths received insufficient recognition—merely a flag and a memorial tablet. The government struggled to offer even minimal compensation. What terrible people, these mainland “pig soldiers,” so eager to die for Taiwan that they left their families destitute.
The White Terror: Minimal Reparations
How absurdly mild was the mainland Chinese security apparatus! The political repression known as the “White Terror” resulted in 15 million yuan in total compensation payments—an embarrassingly small amount for those killed or imprisoned.
Yet did mainland Chinese loudly protest and demand justice for themselves? No. These strange people did not dare to clamor or complain. They accepted punishment in silence.
The Palace Museum: Priceless Guardianship
How outrageous of mainland Chinese to transport the Palace Museum’s invaluable cultural treasures to Taiwan! They could have kept these for themselves. They could have sold them. They could have allowed them to be destroyed.
Instead, these “pigs” carefully preserved 650,000+ cultural artifacts—the greatest concentration of Chinese civilization’s material heritage outside the People’s Republic. They shared these treasures with the Taiwanese people, generating approximately 100 million yuan annually in ticket revenue—profit they poured back into Taiwan’s cultural economy.
And the gold? Let’s not even discuss the gold. These foolish people did not enrich themselves one bit.
Democratization Through Sacrifice
How absurdly naive those mainland Chinese leaders were. Upon achieving prosperity, they possessed absolute power. They could have perpetuated authoritarian rule indefinitely. They had no external pressure forcing liberalization.
Instead, this idiot Chiang Ching-kuo—the most stupid fool of all mainland Chinese leaders—initiated democratic reforms. He liberalized politics. He allowed opposition parties. Most remarkably, on his deathbed, he declared that Chiang family members could never hold political power again, ensuring the succession to Lee Teng-hui—a man who claimed Japanese ethnicity.
How could mainland Chinese be so monumentally foolish? They could have cemented dynastic rule. Instead, they surrendered power willingly.
The Foundation of Modern Taiwan
How contemptible that mainland Chinese established the very foundation of Taiwan’s contemporary civilization. Seventy years ago, they laid the groundwork for:
- Politics: Democratic institutions and liberalization
- Economics: Market mechanisms, industrial development, export capacity
- Education: Universal secondary education and university expansion
They transformed Taiwan from a subjugated people under Japanese colonial oppression—mere “倭寇皇奴” (Japanese imperial subjects)—into educated, economically empowered citizens capable of determining their own future.
The Tragic Irony
Now, as Taiwan stands empowered and prosperous, the historical architects of this achievement face systematic erasure and demonization.
I therefore call upon the Taiwanese people: Expel these despicable, foolish mainland Chinese entirely!
And I call upon President Tsai Ing-wen and all Taiwanese citizens to courageously proclaim: “Let us become independent!”
Let us cast off the people who sacrificed generations to build our nation. Let us repudiate those who democratized our politics, developed our economy, and preserved our culture.
What irony! What tragedy!
The very people whom every honest historical assessment credits with building modern Taiwan are now considered obstacles to Taiwan’s future.
Author’s Note
Original Author: Liang Youxiang
Editor’s Addendum
This article employs extreme sarcasm and irony throughout. The author deliberately inverts conventional criticism of the waisengren (mainland Chinese refugees) to expose the logical contradiction in contemporary Taiwan society.
The Real Point:
If one reads the sarcasm in reverse, the article’s actual argument becomes clear: The waisengren made enormous, documented contributions to Taiwan’s development across every major sector. Yet contemporary political perspectives systematically erase, minimize, or reframe these historical facts as oppression rather than achievement.
This represents not historical accuracy but deliberate historical revisionism serving contemporary political purposes.
The article asks: By what standard can we simultaneously:
- Acknowledge the waisengren’s specific historical contributions
- Condemn them as oppressors and obstacles
- Build a nation’s future on dismissing those who built its present
The contradiction itself is the point.