INTRODUCTION

During the Cold War, there were two schools of thought regarding the policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) towards Chinese residents in Southeast Asia, including those in Indonesia. The first school was represented by Harold Hinton, which argued that China would protect the “overseas Chinese” (ethnic Chinese) at all cost; the second school of thought, which was spearheaded by David Mozingo and developed by Leo Suryadinata and others was that China's national interest differed from that of the “overseas Chinese”, and it would only protect the “overseas Chinese” if this initiative coincided with the highest priority of China's national interest such as national security, territorial integrity and the survival of the regime.

After the end of the Cold War, as ethnicity and ethno-nationalism was more intensively examined, the view of the first school, in a modified way, reemerged. This view was that since China wanted to modernize and it recognized the tremendous economic resources of the Chinese communities overseas, Beijing began to stress ethnic ties and encouraged the ethnic Chinese to re-orient themselves toward China. China was also prepared to protect ethnic Chinese interest, as it became part of China's national interests, especially in its pursuit of global dominance. This view was articulated by Western journalists rather than scholars; the examples are Sterling Seagrave, and Lewis M. Simons and Michael Zielenziger.

This chapter examines China's policy towards the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia after the end of the Cold War in order to determine whether there have been any significant changes from the earlier findings. What has been Beijing's policy towards the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia? What are the responses of Southeast Asian countries to the Chinese overture? Do ethnic Chinese remain as an important factor in Sino-ASEAN relations?

THE EVOLUTION OF CHINA's POLICY TOWARDS ETHNIC CHINESE: FROM PROTECTION TO NEUTRALITY

The PRC initially inherited the Kuomintang (KMT, the nationalist party) policy of treating ethnic Chinese as the nationals of China. However, as Beijing entered the international community, it realized that to claim all ethnic Chinese to be China's nationals was not only unrealistic but also harmful to the conduct of foreign relations. Beijing began to offer dual nationality treaties to countries, which recognized Beijing or wanted to be friendly with the new communist giant.