Civil Service Examinations
Under the leadership of the KMT, the ROC government put in force many legal policies which discriminated against local Taiwanese persons. One famous example was the institution of eligibility quotas for obtaining civil service (and many related) positions based on provincial origin. This policy assured that each year only 4% to 6% of such positions were open to Taiwanese applicants. All other positions went to "Mainlanders." (The "mainlanders" were the government officials and military personnel, who originally came to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek, along with their family members and other relatives.)
Even though the legal frameworks of all civilized nations stipulate that "All citizens are equal before the law," in the ROC such eligibility quotas, which treated Taiwanese persons as 2nd or 3rd class citizens, continued into the 1990s.
Covering the period of 1950 to 1990 in Taiwan, the following table gives figures for the total population, the population of "Mainlanders", the population of "Mainlanders" as a percentage of the total population, and the significance of these statistics for those Taiwan people competing for civil service positions.
| Year | Total Population | Mainlander | Mainlander % | Significance |
| 1950 | 7,554,339 | 524,940 | 6.9% | Eligibility for approx. 94% of all vacancies in civil service positions in Taiwan were only open to 6.9% of the population. |
| 1960 | 10,792,202 | 1,279,426 | 11.9% | Eligibility for approx. 94% of all vacancies in civil service positions in Taiwan were only open to 11.9% of the population. |
| 1970 | 14,753,911 | 2,314,474 | 15.7% | Eligibility for approx. 94% of all openings in civil service positions in Taiwan were only open to 15.7% of the population. |
| 1980 | 17,866,008 | 2,594,447 | 14.5% | Eligibility for approx. 94% of all openings in civil service positions in Taiwan were only open to 14.5% of the population. |
| 1990 | 20,401,305 | 2,774,738 | 13.6% | Eligibility for approx. 94% of all openings in civil service positions in Taiwan were only open to 13.6% of the population. |
