1987/12/01 by Esta Ungar · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #China #Chinese community #Law #Political science #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
paper · doi:10.2307/2759185
openalex publication_date 1987/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/17
T HE HISTORY OF THE CHINESE COMMUNITY in Vietnam from the early twentieth century onward shows a marked pattern of powerful groups competing for the allegiance of this growing community. The competition reached its peak in the years from 1945 to 1979 and continues in a less dramatic form to affect the lives of Chinese in Vietnam today. This pattern of rivalries, surveyed over the last four decades, throws light on the most recent upheaval in Vietnam's Chinese community. Before 1954, the main groups contending for allegiance among the Overseas Chinese community, the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang, both represented China but differed in their ideologies. After 1954 the Chinese community in Vietnam, like the country itself, became divided politically. Despite the difference in political systems, the contest for dominance over the Chinese community continued to escalate, and the Vietnamese now entered the area as new contenders for the allegiance of the Overseas Chinese. Faced with the need to integrate the large group of resident aliens in their midst, Vietnamese authorities, both north and south, took up the challenge in various ways. Their administrative responses, described below, drew them into periodic bouts of confrontation with Chinese government authorities. These episodes had repercussions within the Overseas Chinese communities as well.' In the post-1975 era, recent published reports and statements have revealed evidence of a new chapter in the struggle for the loyalties of the Chinese community. After 1975, for the first time in many years lines of battle were clearly drawn between Vietnamese and Chinese socialist governments over their respective spheres of influence in the Chinese commuity. After the liberation of the south in 1975 and the withdrawal of Guomindang influence