Part of the problem lay in the fact that the PRC had inherited
the late Qing and Nationalist definition of nationality based on jus
sanguinis; that is, that nationality was determined by paternal line, not
country of birth. As a rough estimate, this put the overseas Chinese
population at around twelve million, but made no allowance for
choice of nationality, where this existed, let alone intermarriage.
In the period to 1954, the PRC was cautious about using the
overseas Chinese as its own long arm into Southeast Asia to destabilise
governments it denounced as ‘tools of imperialism’. The reason was
two-fold: the PRC was feeling its way with respect to the overseas
Chinese; and it was not prepared in the meantime to jeopardise its own
interests. In particular, Beijing was not prepared to allow the precipi-
tate actions of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, over which it had
limited control, to shape its policy towards the region. At the same
time, the PRC did want its influence to prevail over that of Taiwan,
and for overseas Chinese to support the PRC, both ideologically and
financially. It therefore granted overseas Chinese the right to elect rep-
resentatives to PRC political bodies, including the National People’s
Congress.
Nowhere was the need to tread a fine line with respect to over-
seas Chinese more evident than in Malaya, where not only was the
insurgency inspired by Maoist revolutionary practice, but was actually
led by overseas Chinese. China gave verbal support to the insurgents,
and revolutionary literature was smuggled in; but only minimal ma-
terial assistance was forthcoming. At the same time, Beijing protested
the effect harsh control measures, taken during the emergency, had on
ethnic Chinese. By 1951, however, the Chinese government was
becoming concerned over both the terrorist tactics adopted by the
MCP and the ethnic polarisation the insurgency was producing. In
October Beijing obliquely criticised overseas Chinese dominance of
the MCP by calling for formation of a broad united front of all the
Malayan peoples. By the end of the year, the MCP had reduced its
terrorist activities.
Communism and the Cold War