Changing diasporic identity and increasing global backlash: the Xi government’s tactics and challenges of engaging new generation overseas Chinese

Abstract

ABSTRACT The transnational engagement between the Chinese communist government and first-generation overseas Chinese has been analysed extensively, but the academic analysis of interactions between the Chinese communist government under Xi Jinping and new generation overseas Chinese is scarce. Questions arise regarding how the rise of new generation overseas Chinese has changed the diasporic identity of the overseas Chinese community; what the Xi government’s tactics of engaging new generation overseas Chinese are; and how new generation overseas Chinese respond to the Xi government’s targeted campaign. By answering these questions, this article provides an important case study for the emerging scholarship on the relations between authoritarian states and new generation diasporas. Building on government archives, ethnographic interviews, media reports, and online and offline diaspora events, this article analyses the Xi government’s tactics and challenges of diaspora engagement targeting new generation overseas Chinese, and forecasts an uphill battle for the Xi government.