Citizenship and Those Who Leave: The Politics of Emigration and Expatriation

12. The "Overseas Chinese": The State and Emigration from the 1890s through the 1990s

12 the “overseas chinese”: the state and emigration from the 1890s through the 1990s Carine Pina-Guerassimoff and Eric Guerassimoff Translated from the French by Amy Jacobs Emigration was long prohibited in China. Up until the mid-nineteenth century , the attitudes of successive Chinese governments toward emigration corresponded to their attitudes on maritime trade with foreign countries. Before the advent of the Ming in 1368, there were no severe restrictions; this dynasty, more autocratic than previous ones, prohibited all private maritime trade until 1567. A century later, the new Qing dynasty (1644–1911) proved as mistrustful of emigration as its predecessors once had been and forbade all visits overseas. Chinese living abroad were considered traitors, rebels, or conspirators. In the early nineteenth century, important changes began to develop in relations between China and the European colonial powers pressing on its gates from positions in Southeast Asia, where the Europeans were changing the political economy of the region in ways that affected both the Chinese government and emigrants from the Chinese empire , most of whom were settled in those areas. Over the second half of the century, Chinese emigration attained numbers incomparable to those for the preceding periods, and the process was now being organized under pressure from the foreign powers. It was at this time that a weakened, impoverished China, anxious to defend its sovereignty, came to discover the “Overseas Chinese.” At the close of its reign, the Qing dynasty began to formalize its institutional, administrative, and legal relation to emigrants. During the first republic (1911–1949), this interest in emigration manifested in the last years of the empire was continued and expanded. Later, in 1978, the Communist regime re-established contact with Chinese groups living outside mainland China, with the aim of integrating “Overseas Chinese” into its ambitious economic modernization program. It began encouraging and facilitating “returns” and became increasingly tolerant of “departures,” turning its back on more than two decades of closed-border policy. emigration in china’s international relations, ca. 1840–1940 Until the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese living in foreign lands were legally defined as criminals, and the Imperial Court cared little what became of them. In response to the 1740 massacre of the Chinese of Batavia, the Emperor Qianlong (1736–1796) had this comment: “Those people are deserters of the celestial empire, they deserted their ancestral tombs and sought benefits overseas, and the court is not interested in them.”1 Western imperialism would force China to abandon laws prohibiting emigration and lead it to adopt measures for protecting expatriates, measures derived from international law based on a conception of the state as nation. Coolies and Contracts: The Necessary Recognition of Emigration China’s defeat in the first opium war (1839–1842) opened the Middle Empire ’s gates to European merchants. In a few years, trade in emigrants along the country’s southern coasts became a highly lucrative activity, dominated by Westerners. From 1844 to 1859, vast numbers of Chinese coolies were transported to the “sugar islands” of the West Indies, Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asian colonies to satisfy the pressing need for cheap plantation labor. The first contingent, destined for the Bourbon Islands, left the port of Amoy (Xiamen) in 1844 on a French ship; in 1847, Cuba received Chinese coolies who had left from the Philippines, and after 1850 they continued to arrive from Amoy, Swatow (Shantu), and Macao. Local Chinese authorities at first closed their eyes to the abuses resulting from this activity. As in the past, departures were tolerated, since they relieved the southern provinces of undesirable elements and helped ease the demographic surplus. Traffickers in migrants bought state functionaries ’ acceptance and accommodation. Chinese reluctance to intervene may also be explained by the fear of provoking a new conflict with the British. A series of resounding incidents (revolts in embarkation ports, mutinies, xenophobic attacks), along with pressure from Great Britain and France, ultimately forced the Chinese authorities to take charge of emigration. Britain and France used the conventions signed in Peking at the conclusion of a new opium war (1856–1860) to force acceptance of emigration 246 carine pina-guerassimoff and eric guerassimoff freedom for Chinese subjects (Article 5 of the Sino-English treaty, Article 9 of the Sino-French). The texts provided for joint drafting of regulations “to protect Chinese who emigrate this way, depending on the situation in the various open ports.”2 For the Chinese government, this...