nevertheless released to take part. Evidently he felt it prudent to co-
operate with the GMD at this juncture. In the longer term the Dong
Minh Hoi would prove to be no match for the Vietminh.
Communist agents were active elsewhere in Southeast Asia
during the interwar years, but as agents of the Comintern, not the
Chinese Communist Party. The best known and most active (includ-
ing M. N. Roy, Tan Malaka and Ho Chi Minh) were not Chinese.
Many of those drawn to communism in the region were, however, local
Chinese attracted by clandestinely circulating propaganda of the CCP.
At first, as in Thailand, Chinese activists formed overseas cells of the
CCP, but Comintern policy was to promote national communist
parties. In Malaya, for example, Chinese constituted most of the
membership of the Malayan Communist Party. Its goal was to expel
the British and bring about a communist revolution on behalf of the
peoples of Malaya, but Malays feared it would reduce Malaya to an
overseas dependency of China. In this way, communist Chinese policy
towards overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia often tended to exacer-
bate racial and social tensions.
Sino–Thai relations
Assimilation of the Chinese community in Siam in the nineteenth
century encountered fewer of the social or religious constraints and
distortions due to colonialism in the rest of Southeast Asia. Never-
theless, as the Chinese population expanded, tensions developed.
Several localised Chinese protests were brutally suppressed by
Siamese troops, and there was resentment over the economic success
of Chinese employed as ‘tax farmers’ to collect revenue for the
government. In the second half of the century, migration of Chinese
increased. Still by far the majority were male and most married
Siamese wives. The basis was thereby laid for an assimilable
Sino–Siamese community.
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia