Propaganda of Mainland China and Taiwan Toward Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia During 1950s

• Published in: Chinese Journal of International Review
• Main Authors: Zhiwei Sun, Haocheng Yin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: World Scientific Publishing 2023-12-01
• Subjects: Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian; the People’s Republic of China and the Taiwan authorities; British diplomacy; overseas Chinese policy
• Online Access: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S2630531323500117
• ISSN: 2630-5313; 2630-5321

In the early stage of the People’s Republic of China, both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and retreat of Kuomintang (KMT) tried their efforts to win the overseas Chinese immigrants’ support through a series of foreign policies and legislation activities. Since its establishment, the PRC had constantly increased its efforts to promote its political influence and emotional connections among Chinese immigrants overseas. To this end, the PRC government had adjusted its political policies during the land reformation. On the other side, KMT government tried to contain its counterpart’s political influence among these immigrants and to restrict the monetary funding flowing back to Chinese mainland. In fact, the relevant KMT policies not only were impractical in action but also had caused a series of tension and concerns in major countries at Southeast Asian. In this paper, we analyze documentary records kept from British Foreign Office and conduct a comparative assessment between the PRC and KMT’ s foreign policies targeting those Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asian and propose political options and diplomatic strategies to deal with such situation. Our study intends to explore foreign policy options available in Chinese and British foreign policies toward Chinese oversea immigrants residing in Southeast Asia.