Consider the Chinese civil war of the late 1940’s. When the communists came to power, the Nationalist Party (KMT) loyalists fled in every direction. Many went to Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc. and also the island of Taiwan.

Unfortunately, the leaders of most of these countries (except for Taiwan) didn’t want these ethnic Chinese. So ….. in Thailand and Burma for example, these people were given refugee documents, not citizenship. Their children are also considered refugees.

At the present time, many of these “Chinese refugees” have applied for the so-called “overseas Chinese passport” from the Republic of China government authorities in Taiwan.

At the present time, Taiwan is hoping to join the United Nations, but according to United Nations Conventions, the issuance of this type of “overseas passport” which does not include residency rights, work rights, or voting rights in any country (including Taiwan) is illegal.

So, of course, in fact these people holding the “overseas Chinese passport” issued by the ROC on Taiwan are merely one small step above pure statelessness. Normally, speaking, the immigration authorities in most countries will not accept these passports as valid travel documents (unless the bearer also has dual nationality in some other country), because if the bearer of this passport overstays, there is no country (including Taiwan) to which he/she can be deported !!

The United States doesn’t want to reveal the true facts of Taiwan’s international legal position, or the status of the Republic of China on Taiwan, because if those facts are revealed, then the United States federal government would be immediately sucked into this morass of a “Chinese refugee” problem which started in the late 1940’s and has continued up to the present day.

This can be explained more carefully. Some basic knowledge of Asian history from the late 1930’s to the present along with a “laws of war” reading of the post-WWII San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) of 1952 shows that Taiwan is occupied territory of the United States of America. The Republic of China is (-1-) a subordinate occupying power, beginning on the date of the surrender of Japanese troops on Oct. 25, 1945, and (-2-) a government in exile, beginning mid-December 1949.

The United States formerly recognized the ROC as the “sole legitimate government of China,” but never recognized the ROC as the legitimate government of Taiwan. The US government officials often repeat the statement that Taiwan is not an independent nation, and of course under the Taiwan Relations Act the terminology of “Republic of China” is not recognized after Jan. 1, 1979.

However, the US government officials have not told the American people, and the members of Congress, the full story. Legally speaking, Taiwan is still under US military occupation up to the present day. The basic framework for this analysis is in the following Articles of the SFPT: (-1-) Article 23(a) confirms that the United States is the principal occupying power over all areas within the geographic scope of the treaty, and (-2-) Article 4(b) confirms that United States Military Government (USMG) jurisdiction over all Article 2 and Article 3 territories is active as of the date of the coming into force of the peace treaty: April 28, 1952.

Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory. Military government continues until legally supplanted. USMG jurisdiction over all Article 3 territories ended on May 15, 1972, when Japanese civil government supplanted USMG jurisdiction.

By way of comparison, there has been no announcement of the end of USMG jurisdiction over Taiwan, which is an Article 2(b) cession.

If the United States government admits the truth of the Taiwan status question, then the ROC government jurisdiction over “Formosa and the Pescadores” will have to come to an end, because such jurisdiction is blocking the Taiwanese people’s enjoyment of fundamental rights under the US Constitution. Such rights include life, liberty, property, and due process of law. The right to travel, which includes the right to hold a passport, is a part of “liberty.”

With USMG assuming direct jurisdiction over Taiwan, (and no longer delegating such administrative authority to the ROC), the least of the United States problems is the immediate need to issue over 20 million “US national non-citizen” passports to native Taiwanese people. A greater problem is that millions of persons holding the so-called “overseas Chinese passport” issued by the ROC government immediately become completely stateless, and hence refugees.

While the above example may seem a bit complex, it does present a real-world example of how refugee problems occur.

Look at specific wars, think of refugees you have in your area, places like the Middle East.

It’s important to include religious persecution as an element of seeking refuge in another country.

Try wikipedia for further info.

http://www.un.org/Docs/SG/Report99/refugees.htm

http://www.cfr.org/publication/4637/world_refugee_day.html

http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/fs20.htm

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/3c18e8ab4.html