The dynamics of Asia's extraordinary growth cannot be understood without a thorough examination of the Overseas Chinese, the greatest entrepreneurs in the world. According to an assortment of estimates, Chinese around the world hold between $ 2 trillion and $ 3 trillion in assets, and many believe the real figure is higher.

...Fujitsu Research in Tokyo looked at the listed companies in just six key Asian countries. As its findings below illustrate, the overwhelming majority were owned by Overseas Chinese as follows: Thailand 81 percent, Singapore 81 percent, Indonesia 73 percent, Malaysia 61 percent, and the Philippines 50 percent.

This astonishing revelation about the tremendous economic power of the Chinese is confined only to the publicly listed companies. What about the less glamorous small and medium-size enterprises that together make up 96 percent of all companies in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) realm? According to Bustanil Ariffin, the former Indonesian minister who co-chaired the Pacific Business Forum, it is believed that small and midsize companies employ half of the workforce in most Asian countries. Chinese own 90 percent of these companies.

The economy of the borderless Overseas Chinese is the third largest in the world. If we counted the economic activity of all the Overseas Chinese as country all by itself, it would be outranked only by the United States and Japan. Overseas Chinese dominate trade and investment in every East Asian country except Korea and Japan.

Ethnic Chinese - not the Japanese - are the largest cross-border investors in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The Overseas Chinese account for 80 percent of all foreign investment in China, the motherland.

In the thriving new countries of Asia, Overseas Chinese control a huge chunk of the wealth - far more than their numbers might suggest. In Malaysia, they represent 30 percent of the population and control more than half of the economy. The numbers elsewhere are even more remarkable:

* Indonesia: 4 percent control 70 percent of the economy.

* Thailand: 3 percent control 60 percent of the economy.

* The Philippines: 3 percent control 70 percent of the economy.

Some historians go so far as to say that the economies of Southeast Asia were in a sense leased to the Overseas Chinese, while the natives concentrate on government.

Oversea Chinese might.

Not anymore.

Chinese should slow down before more burn-out (riots); less time with money and more time with family and friends.

We need to live like human; Died rich is purely pointless.

The population of Chinese in Thailand is not 3 percent. Also, they have controlled a lot of thai government.

Well, just remember that the sheer giant Chinese population has alway played a central role in this economic dominance.

What is the population of China now? 1.3 BILLION

What is the overseas Chinese population worldwide? I say about 100 million.

First, when the Chinese, mostly Cantonese and Fujianese, started leaving China, they most certainly did well in the lands that they came too. And kudos for that! However, don't forget that they had access to extensive reservoirs of cash back in the motherland from which they could tap into. So there you have the starting point, so to speak:

Virtuous Cycle 0 = Confucian Work Ethic + Vast networks of cash from back in the motherland

Next, you naturally get economic domination of the areas that are "colonized". This means enormous concentration of wealth in all "colonized areas" naturally adding to the original vast network of cash:

Virtuous Cycle 1 = Confucian Work Ethic + Motherland Cash + Colony Cash

Now, of course, the motherland is poor, thanks to communism/moa, etc., and the Colony Cash is being funnelled back to the motherland.

Virtuous Cycle 2 = Confucian Work Ethic + 2-3 Trillion in Colony Cash ---invested back into dirt-poor motherland.

So ask yourself the question: What if China motherland population was only like say 120 million like Japan, or like 6 million like Israel?!?

The key reasons why the overseas Chinese never dominated Japan and S. Korean is because they both have next to nothing in terms of Chinese minorities, they both heavily discriminated against Chinese, and still do. The Japanese still discriminate heavily against the 800,000 or so ethnic Koreans in Japan. And of course, Japan was a colonial power, which colonized among many countries... China!

As for S. Vietnam, it is true that the Chinese in Cholon practically ran the country's economy. But mind, you, we Vietnamese had no respect for them academically. Chinese in Vietnam had a reputation for being academic underachievers relative to us. Now this is quite bizarre b'coz Chinese/Cantonese are known to be academic as well as economic overachievers everywhere else they go.

From what I understand, Vietnam threw out hundreds of thousands of Chinese in 1978-79, for economic sabotage of all things!!! Yet, today, there's supposed to be about 2,000,000 left in Vietnam, with access to--you guessed it: $2-3 TRILLION in that vast network of cash from overseas Chinese. And don't forget all those Yankee dollars that came into Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.

You see, sheer numbers most certainly do count...


BTW, Chinese in America do well, but how do they compare to Jews?!? Right now, there about 5.8 million American Jews, and about 3 million Chinese, many of which came with college degrees in hand. Odd, but Jews seem to defy the numbers, i.e. worldwide, they number only about 13 million.

doesn't matter. most chinese don't consider overseas chinese to be chinese anyways. this is from experience, by the way.

I still <3 u

Not a wild guest: you have part or 100% Chinese ancestries.

No.

This is situation that is not normal.
Native of economy of the area must have justly
It is rightful that country's people of appeal of economy of the country has
The southeast Asia countries must control Chinese
Because it is that it keeps southeast Asia's economical sovereign power

Are you 100% sure? How come you are look so fair like me?
Not when they need money.

Guess what? I think I'm gonna have to beat you up!

Not to worry, the localized Chinese will take care their own problems. Competition man.


Please don't, we are all Chinese right?

So what? Chinese from the mainland don't consider us overseas Chinese to be real Chinese anyways. They hardly know about us and could care less.

Also, the overseas Chinese themselves are not a united people. Most of us are quite cellular and only care about family and close friends. I doubt there is a feeling of overseas Chinese pride. Everyone is just going along doing their own business.

This isn't something to be proud of.

Sorry, but once I make up my mind, there's no going back.

Take that!

Look at you now. Look at you now.

I must be one of those rich oversea Chinese then , anyway family has reopen business in China since we left in 1949 in Shanghai. Because its dame short and we still speak the local dialect, so we still are considering Chinese. Though family has lost some factories to CCP in 1949.

Can we learn to live along please?

Equal Opportunity For All

it's about 56million iirc. they help bring money and aid from china into those asean countries too.

Really , I thought Vn economy is run by ethnic viet (KINH) , How come the Chinese run Vietnam's economy now ? And i thought most ppl in Cho lon are ethnic Viet as well , never knew that they are Chinese
Can you actually show some proofs to back ur words plz

Thank you

Have a nice day

Look, if the overseas Chinese contribute to 80% of "foreign" investment in China, which is about 16 times bigger than Vietnam in population, then it quite possible that they are still playing a huge roll in Vietnam.

Anyway during the war, Chinese Vietnamese deliberately didn't naturalize b'coz they didn't want to be drafted. Pretty much all male citizens had to serve in the S. Vietnamese military. Thus, had the best of both worlds where they stayed out of the war and were able to take advantage, if so inclined, of all those billions fo Yankee dollars coming in from the US. I've seen numbers from the 1950's, in scholarly books, that showed data saying something like the Chinese made up only 8% of the S. Vietnamese population, but controlled like 85% of the rice trade, and so on. (Don't quote me on these numbers, they are not exact, just from vague memory!!!).

Chinese actually colonized Southern Vietnam when it still belonged to the Khmers. They did so with the blessing of the Vietnamese emperor. In fact, I think they were in his service. These were the Ming Loyalists.

And Vietnam now? Well there's a lot of rumor that after the anti-Chinese purge of the late 1970's, that the remaining Chinese still often owned businesses but merely use cashless Vietnamese citizens to front them.

There's an analogous situation in Little Saigon in LA. My brother told me that many of the big grocery stores there are actually owned by ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese, i.e. they were able to open these businesses b'coz they borrowed cash from other overseas Chinese back in Asia, or from their Chinese bethren in the various China Towns of Southern Cal. Of course, the little shops, pharmacies, attourney, medical offices in Little Saigon are essentially all Vietnamese.

If you want solid data on S. Vietnam, Vietnam, then look it up yerself. I don't have the time.


I'm not sure what the extent of Chinese economic influence (or outright dominance) is now. But I know that Saigon is the heart of the Vietnamese economy. And in turn, historically, Cholon, the Chinese district, was the heart of buiness in Saigon.

Don't forget... The Golden Rule always applies: Those with the Gold, make the rules. There is a vast network of cash within the overseas Chinese community. Vietnamese don't have access to this network, but Chinese Vietnamese do. (Of course, Vietnamese diaspora have been sending back about $3 Billion a year in remittances for years now. Many educated Vietnamese are going back to Vietnam for business opportunies. But they do NOT have $2-3 TRILLION in cash!)

only the young immature chinese would think like that

Yeah, shortly after I guestimated 100 million, I re-guessed it at about 50 million, since the biggest number is going to come from Taiwan, i.e. about 22 million. 3 million in US, 3 million in Singapore, 2 million in Vietnam, 20,000 in S. Korea, 6-8 million in Indonesia, etc.


This further bolsters my argument--I'm sure you know:

Virtuous Cycle 3 = Confucian Work Ethic + Colony Cash + Nouveau Riche Cash from Motherland

Lol, "aid"? Nah, it's all business, often ruthless, which is why there are periodic & violent anti-Chinese riots in places like Indonesia, the Philipines, etc.

In Vietnam in the late 1970's, this "aid" came in the form of economic sabotage at the behest of Beijing.

Overseas Chinese are truly one of the most powerful diasporas in the world. Part of China's economic growth is due to immigrant Chinese FDI.

Just wanted to add, that Vietnam/Vietnamese would not need Chinese to run our economy. Of course, we'd welcome $2-3 TRILLION in Overseas Chinese cash tho'.

There are countries, cultures really, that benefit from Chinese domination, but refuse to admit it. I don't mean to belittle or offend anyone--but what I'm saying here is quite politically INcorrrect.

There's a totally relevant situation going on in Zimbabwe right now. The formerly wise freedom fighter turned stupid & ruthless dictator, Robert Mugabe, undertook major land reforms a few years ago. The white citizens of the country were stripped of their lands--some of this was done violently. The lands were then given to poor natives, often chronies of Mugabe. Long story short, this was a TOTAL & UTTER DISASTER for the country! Zimbabwe very quickly went from the productive & properous bread basket of Southern Africa into a total economic basket case with the world's highest rate of inflation: 1700% !!!! Unemployment is at 80%! Many have fled to S. Africa where they are not wanted--especially by their fellow black S. Africans, who often beat and even murder them, not unlike those loser skinheads in Russia who attack anyone who is not white.

Anyway, the White Zibabweans, though they were carpet-bagging iceholes/neo-imperialists who sucked the blood/concentrated the wealth of Zimbabwe for themselves were nonethless, the economic engines of the country. Thus, doing away with them was worse than having them around.

Am I saying that the native Zimbabweans are inherently/genetically incompetent? HELL NO! But I am most certainly saying they are culturally ill-equipped to participate in a modern economy, which requires education, a lot of it--in particular, a culture that emphasizes education: They have a tribal culture and not a materialistic, keep-up-with-the-Joneses, rat-race culture that Jews, Confucians, Brahmins, Calvinists (Whites) have.

In the third wolrd, people work and toil all day long. They are not lazy. However, what they need is to have a rat-race culture that produces business majors, engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc. These worker bees are the economic engines of any wealthy society.

The solution is not to outright discriminate, but to dive head first and compete with the economically dominant groups. That is, everyone must be equally shallow and materialistic. Otherwise, there will be two classes, the "haves" and the "have-nots". And the "haves" are gonna laugh all the way to the bank. Seriously, some solid "affirmative action" is definitely required, but not too much. Affirmative action will help the currently underperforming groups and at the same time keep in check the groups at the top: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, no? But the underperforming groups must compete. This actually a huge debate in the African American community right now: Does affirmative action hurt or help blacks?!? Racist rightwingers of course say that it hurts blacks.

The truth, paradoxically, is both.

Likewise, are overseas Chinese the economic engines who help the countries they dominate or are they bottom-feeding blood-suckers? The answer, paradoxically, is both.

Of course, if a group is committing economic sabotage, then maybe a little bit of discrimination is in order.