Synopses & Reviews
Originally published in 1972, this is a detailed examination of the policy of the People's Republic of China towards the overseas Chinese - those people of Chinese origin living outside China, mostly in South-East Asia. The overseas Chinese have often been regarded as a kind of fifth column used by the Chinese Communist Party to stir up revolution in their home countries. Dr Fitzgerald convincingly demonstrates the falseness of this view and traces the development of the CCP from 1949 through to the Cultural Revolution. He has succeeded in producing a valuable, new, and carefully researched study of Chinese policy, which contains many new insights and much new material of interest to those dealing with modern Chinese politics.
Review
'This excellent study helps to nail a mysteriously persistent myth - the one about China's alleged 'fifth column' overseas in the form of the millions of ethnic Chinese resident abroad (particularly in Southeast Asia).' China Now
Review
'The book is excellently published with index, bibliography, appendixes and good organization, and provides a first-rate and contemporary antidote to less scholarly works which have for too long been our main sources of the question.' The Asian Student
Table of Contents
Abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introduction; Part I. The Domestic Perspective: 2. Administration of overseas Chinese affairs; 3. Communication with the Chinese abroad; 4. Domestic overseas Chinese policy: 1949-1966; Part II. Policies Towards the Chinese Abroad: 5. The 'colonial' legacy: identification of problems; 6. Self-determination, nationality, and peaceful coexistence: 1954-1956; 7. Policy reasssessment, 1956: Foreign exchange and education; 8. An experiment in decolonisation; 9. The Cultural Revolution: overseas Chinese policy under attack; 10. Overseas Chinese policy: overseas Chinese communism and foreign policy; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.