The Korean War produced a large number of prisoners of war, both on the side of North Korea / China and on the side of the armed forces of the United Nations. Thanks to the efforts of all parties, the criteria for the repatriation of prisoners of war were finally fixed in "the principle of free repatriation" of the month of July 1953; according to which the prisoners of war, they could freely choose the place of their repatriation. However, of a total of about 21,000 prisoners of Chinese Volunteers Army, more than 14,000 refused to be sent to China after their release and instead chose Taiwan. In the past decades, both China and Taiwan have explained such a choice on the basis of an ideological reason. However, the analyses of some documents concerning POWs' daily life and background, also strengthened by a number of interviews recently released by POWs sent to Taiwan, have shown that actually ideology was only one of the reasons of POWs' choice. In particular, the elements that influenced POWs' decision can be summarized as follows:As POWs' camps in South Korea generally were managed by POWs themselves (and then the discussions among prisoners were frequent), many prisoners unable to decide autonomously their destination simply ended up following others' advice or order. About 30% of POWs were ex KMT army soldiers (i.e. the so-called "liberation soldiers") captured by CCP troops during the Liberation War. No wonder, therefore, that on account of their past they decided for Taiwan, since they feared the effects of New China's policies such as sanfan-wufan三反五反 ("Three-Anti Campaign" [1951] and the "Five-Anti Campaign" [1952]) .The POWs coming from the south-western part of China (especially the Sichuan Province) almost collectively chose Taiwan in order to escape further risks after the harsh policies against their territory pursued by Beijing's Government in the course of the "Land Revolution" and in other occasions. Moreover, many inhabitants of that area of China were originally tightly organized in regional associations such as Tongxianghui 同乡会 (Native Place Associations), and this had generated a strong solidarity among them. Moreover, class status, educational background, age, marital status and so on also had a strong influence on POWs' decision.%朝鲜战争时期,中朝联军与联合国军均有大量人员被俘.1953年在各方面势力的妥协下,双方最终同意以"自由遣返"为基本原则,对战俘进行遣返.结果,两万一千余名志愿军俘虏中,超过一万四千余名选择台湾作为自己的遣返地.导致这一现象发生的原因无疑是复杂的,但去除宣传中长期主张的意识形态因素,通过对志愿军在俘虏营中生活以及战俘个人背景的分析,可以发现以下因素也尤为重要.第一,俘虏营中由俘虏高度自治的环境导致部分在遣送问题上没有确定想法的俘虏被动(或遭威胁或随大流)选择台湾;第二,从俘虏的个人背景来看,国民党出身的所谓"解放战士"受个人历史原因影响,选择遣返回台湾的例子较多,而这一人群在志愿军俘虏人数中所占比例较高(30%以上).第三,西南地区,特别是四川地区,一是受国内土改,三反五反等政治运动影响,二是受战俘营中组成的"同乡会"影响,出现了小集体一致选择遣返回台湾的情况,可见国内政治与社会的发展以及地区特征对志愿军俘虏也存在影响.
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