Southeast Asian Chinese engage a rising China: business associations, institutionalised transnationalism, and the networked state

Abstract

With the launching of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia have been confronted with both growing business opportunities and emerging challenges. How do ethnic Chinese businesses and their associations respond to the BRI, and by extension, a rising China? How do transnationalism and the nation-states shape their engagement strategies? What are the implications of the Southeast Asian experience for an understanding of diaspora transnationalism? Drawn upon empirical studies conducted in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, and by examining the emergence of the new structural characteristics of Chinese business associations, we argue that these associations have formed institutionalised transnational interactions with China through a variety of mechanisms to facilitate cross-border flows of capital, goods, people, and information. Resultant from various policies instituted by the Southeast Asian states, this economic transnationalism has not led to the dilution of the national identity and political loyalty of ethnic Chinese towards their respective countries. We conclude that the institutionalised transnationalism has operated within a ‘dual embeddedness’ structure in which the state is involved as a key network node in the transnational socio-economic field connecting China and the region.