China: Tapping the Power of the Diaspora
Nov 27, 2002
stratfor.biz
Summary
China's southeastern Guangdong Province will host a conference in December designed to further cooperation between the province and Chinese living overseas. Guangdong is not alone in trying to tap China's vast diaspora: In recent years, the central government also has sought ways to attract the expertise and financial resources of ethnic Chinese living abroad. This might aid China's political and strategic goals as well as its economic growth.
Analysis
The Second Conference of the World Guangdong Community Federation is scheduled for Dec. 2-4. The conference, held in China's southeastern Guangdong province, is a forum for discussing the needs of the Chinese diaspora and ways to tap into its knowledge and wealth.
According to an official from the province's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, Chinese living abroad have donated $3.7 billion to the province over the past 20 years, most of it going into infrastructure improvements and education, the China Daily reported. Guangdong also has attracted business investments from the diaspora which aid its economic development efforts.
Guangdong is not alone in trying to tap into China's 35 million-strong diaspora. The central government in Beijing has launched several programs in recent years to bring overseas Chinese back to the mainland -- or at least to attract their money and knowledge. Much of China's economic growth over the past 20 years was driven by the diaspora, but Beijing only recently has attempted to understand and harness that vast pool of potential resources. Now, government officials see in the diaspora not only economic strength, but political and strategic power as well.
Ethnic Chinese make up the single largest diaspora in the world, with most -- 27 million -- living in East Asia. Of those, nearly 24 million are in Southeast Asia: the heaviest concentrations are in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, with significant groups in Singapore and Myanmar as well. Nearly 6 million ethnic Chinese live in North America, mostly in the United States, and nearly 1 million reside in Europe.
Although ethnic Chinese make up just 5 percent of the population of Southeast Asia, they control a disproportionate share of the wealth -- a fact that often leads to ethnic tensions and discrimination in their host countries. In Indonesia, for example, the community became the scapegoat during the transition from founding President Sukarno to his successor, Suharto. During subsequent periods of economic and social turmoil, ethnic Chinese again were singled out and targeted.
Other political strains also lead to problems for ethnic Chinese living abroad. After the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese fled Vietnam. And in the United States, when the so-called Cox report on Chinese nuclear espionage was published in 1999, ethnic Chinese scientists were scrutinized as potential spies.
Beijing now is taking such problems into consideration and formulating ways to assist the diaspora and gain its trust. Many Chinese communities overseas have been established for centuries, and their ties to Communist China -- or even Nationalist Taiwan -- are weak. Beijing therefore seeks first to find common cultural rather than political ties, in order to establish a sense of Chinese nationalism that extends not only those of mainland ancestry, but also of Taiwanese.
For Beijing, tapping into the diaspora can provide a new stream of foreign investment and technology -- but without many of the risks that the government will be seen as "selling out" the country or rendering the economy reliant on foreigners. Chinese living abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia, include some of the region's wealthiest businessmen, and their language and culture make them naturals for investing in mainland China.
Beijing is giving ethnic Chinese incentives not only to invest, but also to return home and set up new businesses or contribute to national growth. Chinese who studied overseas are given local residency status upon returning to set up new businesses, and others are given preferential treatment in research facilities.
China gains more than investments and know-how by working with the diaspora. The broad distribution of ethnic Chinese across Southeast Asia offers Beijing a chance to influence the governments in those countries strongly as well. By strengthening ties with Chinese living abroad, Beijing can gain economically powerful allies in countries throughout the region. This gives the government additional political clout as it works to secure its strategic position and establish China as a regional -- if not global -- superpower.
For the governments in the region, this is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the ethnic Chinese have become an integral part of their economies and political systems. On the other hand, the increasing interest among these communities in investing in mainland China can deny resources and technology to the Southeast Asian states. And as Beijing seeks to integrate Southeast Asia and East Asia into a massive trade bloc with China at the center, the Chinese diaspora becomes a vital web to tie it all together. |
