If you are an immigrated Chinese..

Here's a very stupid question, but I think it's going to be very interesting.
This is directed to all the overseas Chinese(myself included), Chinese immigrants, Chinese with foreign citizenship, or any generation of Chinese-American...


1. Assume your naturalized country is fighting China for some causes(don't care what's the reason), would you switch side? Join in the cause?

a. PRC Aggression. Border dispute erupted into a regional conflict with PRC attempting to repeat Sino-Indian war. PRC will advance past Indian border, secure some land, and return to the original border. The foreign nation backs India in attempt to halt Chinese advance

b. Foreign aggression. N.Korea deteriorated into a situation South Korea and another power pushed north. South Korea reunified entire Korea and have no intentions to any advance into PRC. The other foreign power attempts to push into PRC to c. secure some resources. or d.complete invasion of mainland China. PRC is the defender

e. Alliance. A nation broke into civil war of 2 different sides competing for power. Both the foreign power and PRC supported different side.

f. PRC. PRC is going through transition in political status, and g. The entry is peacekeeping(assuming China needs that for some reason =S) h. The entry of the power is to establish a sphere of influence. Basically invasion.

2. If you are an ethnic Chinese in a foreign army and you face the PLA in the battlefield and you got captured. Would you switch side?

There would be alot of different reaction, much depending on what the cause of the war is, and which generation of immigrant, 1 or nd generation might still harboring some feelings for the ancestral homeland, but 3rd generation and onwards wouldnt. When you were born and raised in a foriegn country, dont even speak chinese, you are no longer a “Chinese”, you are a american, european, or whatever.

We had a thread like this some years ago.. I do believe it was closed. Tread lightly!

bd popeye super moderator

I don't think its a stupid question at all. As I said in the members introduction thread, I live in the US with citizenship. As you guys probably know, China does not like people with dual citizenship so I lost mine a long time ago. For some people, especially immigrants, there is still a sense of the "motherland" in them, no matter how American or whatever you are. I am the same way. As I understand it, Chinese people are very proud of their country and patriotic. Even if they move away, some still retain those feelings. This can be said of any countries citizens, China especially. And then there's a whole other side to this story with Westernized immigrants and 2nd 3rd gens, but I digress. Basically, to answer your question:

1. The reason does matter A LOT. Also, it depends on what your meaning of "contribute to the cause" would be; working for the US DOD or joining the armed forces? I wouldn't switch sides if the reasoning was just.

2. No I wouldn't switch sides. I would only join the AF against the Chinese for a good reason, see answer #1. Switching sides after being captured will probably be viewed as an act of cowardice and wouldn't go well for you, on either side. But that's just me.

An interesting side note on this question. I wonder what the Chinese army would do if they captured "one of their own" an ethnic Chinese. Would they be partial towards them, treat them like the rest, or punish them more.

3. Kinda like question 1.

I think Shifty has answered for most of here.

I also think the Chinese response would follow along similar patterns to the Japanese during WW2. But I think then, the Japanese volunteers fought in Europe.

bladerunner said:

I think Shifty has answered for most of here.

I also think the Chinese response would follow along similar patterns to the Japanese during WW2. But I think then, the Japanese volunteers fought in Europe.

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I did hear the Japanese Americans were permitted to fight another theater than their own, and I think that was a good thing.

ravenshield936 said:

I did hear the Japanese Americans were permitted to fight another theater than their own, and I think that was a good thing.

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I think "permitted" might not be the appropriate word, given that their civilian counterparts were sent to detention camps. I have my suspicions that even nowadays a Chinese-American officer trying to rise up through the ranks is discriminated upon not merely because of his ethnicity but also because of fears about his ultimate loyalty.

Wolverine said:

I think "permitted" might not be the appropriate word, given that their civilian counterparts were sent to detention camps. I have my suspicions that even nowadays a Chinese-American officer trying to rise up through the ranks is discriminated upon not merely because of his ethnicity but also because of fears about his ultimate loyalty.

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I think I Japanese American became a very senior Army General, I cant remember his name something like Eric Shenki? well anyay he was at odds with Rumsfeld, with the type of military deployment required with Iraq Invasion2. I think he was an army traditionalist.

I don't think if you were captured, the PLA would just give you a gun and let you fight if you asked to. First off, how would they know that you are not just an infiltrator? And the PLA doesn't have a lack of manpower, so there would be little benefit in picking up a foreign soldier who understands nothing about the PLA system (ie untrained and indoctrinated in PLA methods of operation/tactics/doctrine).

I believe there was a two or three star general that is Chinese. I forgot his name. My grandfather was a WWII US Army veteran and I found a letter written to my grandmother from President Richard Nixon sending his condolences after he died. I have no idea if they do that for everyone. My family never talk about his experiences so I have no idea if they were good or bad.