Chinese Community

This page is based mostly on a book (unfortunately only in French) written by Arnaud Leveau and published by IRASEC as well as questions asked to Arnaud.

click here for French version

Arnaud Leveau, 30, is an historian and a specialist of Vietnam and continental China. As head of the Asia department of ICOSI (Institut de Coop้ration Sociale Internationale or International Social Cooperation Institute), he co-founded the APAR (Asie Pacifique Recherches or Asia Pacific Research) association. Now Bangkok-based, he covers the region as a press correspondent and is preparing a doctorate thesis on Chinese networks for Paris VII University.

The Thai-based Institut de Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine (IRASEC - Contemporary Southeast Asia Research Institute) is a French public body founded in 2001 which focuses on the political, economic, social and environmental changes taking place in the eleven countries of the region. Its aim is to analyse the major developments that affect, together or separately, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Lorosa'e and Vietnam. The institute draws on a pool of specialists from all disciplines and academic fields, and teams them up according to requirements. IRASEC research work leads to the publication of studies of high scientific calibre whose accessibility should not be restricted to specialists alone. The institute insists particularly on quality presentation and a didactic approach in its books and devises editorial policies accordingly. By March 2003, seven books in French have been published and several of them are being translated into English and various ASEAN languages.

China has not always been kind to her own. Wars, famines, repression and social rigidity have pushed many a Chinaman towards other lands.

These days the Chinese are present everywhere. But it is in Southeast Asia that their influence is felt the most. Not all of them have made a fortune there, far from it, but collectively they have a major economic influence.

In Thailand, nationals of more or less distant Chinese descent account for 8 to 16 percent of the population. They are an essentially urban minority perfectly integrated into society and are thought to control more than 85 percent of the Thai economy (especially in the private sector). Since the withdrawal of the military from public affairs, political life has been largely in the hands of personalities of Chinese descent. The Chinese community has become so influent that Bangkok is sometimes referred to as a Chinese town. Their success, achieved mostly thanks to their communal cohesion, seems to be well accepted by the Thai and mixed marriages are common occurrences.

Chinese presence is even older in Vietnam, but the integration of the Hoa there has been less painless. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, hundreds of thousands of them were among the boat people that fled the country. The suspicion they were under reached its peak during the China-Vietnam war in 1979. During the 1990s conditions progressively improved for the Chinese in Vietnam. The reforms launched by the Communist party to reintroduce a measure of private enterprise favoured first and foremost entrepreneurs of Chinese descent. But in Hanoi as in Ho Chi Minh City their presence and the values they uphold are still controversial. The powers that be do not seem inclined to let the Hoa regain their antebellum predominance in business, even if they and their fabled networks are being relied upon to attract more Chinese investors from abroad.

Arnaud Leveau retraces the itineraries of the "Sons of the Dragon" from motherland to new home countries whose future they now contribute to fashion.

Overseas Chinese are present all over Asia, and in many countries of the region they form one of the engines of economic growth. But it is within ASEAN that their economic strength is most significant, naturally enough, given that almost 88 percent of the Chinese living outside of China are to be found in Southeast Asia.

The profile of the Chinese diaspora is hard to define. There are no reliable data to gauge with precision their demographic and economic importance. This is a problem common to migratory trends, but most governments in the region cultivate vagueness in this case to minimise the power and weight of their Chinese minorities, who themselves usually favour discretion for safety's sake and to go about their business quietly.

There's no set pattern. Chinese from Cholon who had to leave everything behind to get out of the country during the China-Vietnam war in 1979 will feel definitely more Chinese and less enamoured with their country of adoption than Sino-Thai holding top political positions and running very successful businesses. The latter will be more inclined to favour their new home country than would their cousins in Vietnam or even in Malaysia or Indonesia.

These days, Southeast Asian Chinese who renew their ties with China do so sometimes to find relatives that remained on the ancestral land and often to do business. They have important assets in their favour: first, many still speak the dialect of the area in China their forefathers came from, if not the mandarin they have their children learn. Second, they can rely on family and informal networks which are very efficient. And third, their very culture and sensibility make for smooth operations in China, a country which offers a growing number of economic opportunities for the region. Many Southeast Asian Chinese try to reassert their origins and to renew with the land of their ancestors, mostly with an eye on benefiting from China's growth. But let's not get carried away: many of them have made dud investments and have lost quite a few of their illusions in the process.

Last November in Phnom Penh, China and the ten countries of ASEAN signed a framework agreement aiming at the creation of the largest free-trade zone in the world. Such a zone, in which seventeen hundred million consumers live, should link China and the most advanced countries of ASEAN by 2010, and all ASEAN countries by 2015. As early as this year, there is to be a lowering of tariffs on hundreds of items, mainly agricultural produce, and negotiations are about to begin to extend free-trade zone arrangements to investments and exchange of services. Undoubtedly the first to benefit from these new market conditions will be businessmen in Southeast Asia of Chinese descent.