Vid: They chose China - Captured UN soldiers decides to stay in China than return home

It is January 1954. The Korean War is over. Captured UN soldiers held in POW camps are free to return home. Those who refuse repatriation to their homeland are transferred to a neutral zone and given 90 days to reconsider their decision. Among them are 21 American soldiers who decide defiantly to stay in China. Back in the United States, McCarthyism is at its height. Many Americans believe these young men have been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened? Featuring never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents. With the Cold War fading into memory, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera on this astonishing story. In They Chose China, we meet and begin to understand a group of courageous men who fought for and then cut ties with the USA.

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Thank you very much for sharing this documentary. It is really amazing to me, to see or even think of the Chinese taking in these American citizens that came to kill them... And for the Chinese to treat them well.
Heartwarming to see the black American refuse to return home, because the Chinese respected him.

Just a very good perspective, that gives me a lot of respect for the Chinese to be so respectful and welcoming to these Americans.

This just gives me a whole other idea, that a "Prisoner of War" can be treated well, welcomed, and does not need to be tortured.

EDIT: typo...

[edit on 25-2-2009 by LostNemesis]

Yeah, just comparing that to how everyone else treats POW.... But I do believe there were some brainwashing going on.

Not as bad as the brainwashing we went thru after 9/11, but still.

And more recent time defectors on the 38th parallel from the US side have come floating back down the river face down. You have to remember that the people who torture and interrogate others are hand selected on both sides. Not every military person wants to inflict non stop aggression on the the enemy when not in a combat environment.

Excellent link non the less!

reply to post by LostNemesis

Heartwarming to see the black American refuse to return home, because the Chinese respected him.

Keep in mind that the Korean War was before Rosa Park, Martin Luther King, etc. America has come a long way since then.

China's culture remains highly xenophobic, and blacks are considered by many to be 3rd class citizens. Foreign jobs will often ask for Caucasians applicants only. Although, I've noticed that recently they have been more stealth by simply asking for the applicant's picture. (with the same intentions)

Thanks OP for the vid, I'll definitely check it out.