bonds. As elsewhere, such activities tended to stimulate indigenous
nationalism, though there was minimal cooperation between Indone-
sians and Chinese.
In no colony in Southeast Asia had relations between European
authorities and Chinese settlers been worse than in the Philippines
under Spanish rule. The history of those relations in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries is a sad litany of prejudice, discrimination,
oppression, and recurrent pogroms. Large numbers of Chinese were peri-
odically massacred and expelled, and migration was strictly controlled.
Even so, Chinese and Filipinos freely intermarried and a large, well-
integrated Sino–Filipino mestizo community grew up. Perhaps not
surprisingly, members of this community took the lead in the revolution
against Spain, which was also supported by many Chinese.
Chinese were better treated by the American administration,
though exclusion laws limiting migration remained in place. A
Chinese consul-general was appointed to Manila, and branches of the
Guomindang established. Political events in China were followed with
interest, the split between the GMD and the CCP giving rise to a left-
wing group in Manila. Funds were raised for relief in China and
boycotts organised of Japanese goods.
In Indochina the situation was rather different from that in
other Southeast Asian colonies. The Chinese communities in
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were divided for administrative pur-
poses into five congrégations(Cantonese, Teochiu, Hokkien, Hakka
and Hainanese) responsible for managing their own social and cul-
tural affairs (schools, temples, etc.). Chinese were taxed at different
rates from indigenous Vietnamese, Cambodians, Lao and hilltribe
minorities. While some Chinese took up agriculture and fishing (in
northern Vietnam), most were employed in industry and commerce,
especially the rice trade. Over the two decades prior to 1935, roughly
a third of all Indochinese trade was with China, virtually all of it in
the hands of Chinese. In 1935, the French finally permitted Nation-
alist Chinese consulates to be established in Saigon and Hanoi, in
The changing world order