Post-War Refugees to Hong Kong, 8th Dec., 2010.

I was reading a report on Chinese Refugees in Hong Kong.  It provides actual numbers for an obvious trend, i.e. the human capital that left Mainland China after the Communist Party came to power.

Several characteristics distinguished the post-war immigrant group from the other two. It was more heterogeneous in that 20.6 per cent fled to Hong Kong from China's northern provinces. These refugees were dialectically distinct from the Kwangtungese (more popularly known as Cantonese). They had few relatives to rely upon and were not as readily absorbed by Hong Kong-born or pre-war families. Finally, the average size family of this group was smaller (almost two persons less) and there were more single males as well as men who had been separated from their families by civil war.

[ . . . ]

It was found that 53.2 per cent of the heads who entered Hong Kong after the war came for political reasons, so that 435,000 persons within 142,000 households were involved. If the 8.6 per cent who came for "mixed political and economic reasons" were added, the percentage of political refugees is higher. Moreover, 5 per cent of the persons interrogated reported actual persecution of one or more members of their families, or of relatives and friends. Only .6 per cent of the post-war and pre-war immigrant groups expressed a willingness to return to mainland China. Then too, had conditions been normal after World War II, some of the pre-war immigrants might have returned there. After the civil war, they became political refugees and they were equally unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of the government of the country of their nationality, or where they had former habitual residence.

If the post-war group were taken separately, 64.1 per cent would not return for political reasons, even though their economic status is sorely affected thereby. They are among the more chronically deprived and the plight of some is all the more tragic since they are better educated and held important positions in pre-communist China. Many are Western educated and trained - especially in the United States - and others had been Nationalist Government officials and supporters.