The Ethnic Chinese as Filipinos

Abstract

In the past decade, especially after the introduction of the open-door policy in China and the influx of investments from Chinese all over the world into China, there has been rising interest in the phenomenon of what many writers call the “Overseas Chinese” or the “Chinese overseas.” There has been quite a number of international conferences held which are focused on the topic. Likewise, a plethora of publications about the Chinese outside mainland China, specifically about the Chinese in Southeast Asia, has emerged. The government of Australia even went to the extent of commissioning a study on Chinese Business Networks in Southeast Asia,1 one of the better researched works on the topic in recent years. However, the interest, albeit a much welcome one, can also have serious implications especially for the Chinese in Southeast Asia, depending on how this interest is manifested or expressed. Among some writers nowadays, there seems to be an increasing trend to lump all the ethnic Chinese together into “a grand conspiracy” to form a so-called “Third China” or “Greater China” powerful enough to tip the economic balance scale against the United States and Japan.KeywordsSoutheast Asian CountryChinese CommunityDiplomatic RelationQuezon CityIdentity SurveyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.