into the expertise of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs who had learned
how to operate in the world of international capitalism, invite them
back to China, and so use their knowledge to assist China’s moderni-
sation. As the extent of the wealth of overseas Chinese capitalists
became evident, Qing officials began to see them also as a source of
investment in China. In 1893, an imperial edict gave overseas Chinese
and their families the right to return to and leave China at any time,
in pursuit of their business. In 1909, the Qing proclaimed the princi-
ple of jus sanguinisas the basis for Chinese nationality: anyone whose
father was Chinese, no matter where born, was a Chinese citizen. Thus
were the Chinese of Southeast Asia reclaimed for China.
It was abuses in the coolie trade that first alerted Qing officials to
the need to protect Chinese going abroad, and led to the establish-
ment of permanent overseas Chinese missions. In 1877, sixteen years
after China was forced to accept foreign embassies in Beijing, the first
Chinese legation was established in London. The first consul-general
for the Nanyang Chinese was appointed the following year, based in
Singapore. In 1886, a Qing Commission of Inquiry visited the Philip-
pines, the Straits Settlements, Burma, Java, and even Australia to gain
information about Chinese communities overseas. As a result, vice-
consulates were opened in Penang and later in Manila (1899).
Disagreement over the status of Chinese in Indonesia (for the Dutch
all were Dutch subjects, not Chinese citizens) delayed establishment of
a consulate in Batavia until 1910. No Chinese consulate was estab-
lished in French Indochina until well after the fall of the dynasty.
Singapore was the strategic base for China’s new ‘forward policy’
to open up relations with the Nanyang Chinese. It was from there that
Qing representatives travelled throughout the region, raising funds
through the sale of imperial honours, seeking talented Chinese to
assist in China’s modernisation, and urging wealthy Chinese to invest
in China. Nanyang Chinese wealth poured into railways in particular,
but also into shipping, commerce, industry and agriculture. Very large
investors were rewarded with mandarin rank.
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia