ABSTRACT
The currency crisis that hit East Asia in 1997 had profound implications for ethnic Chinese communities in the region. One factor in the crisis, according to some analysts, was the indiscriminate channeling by intra-Chinese business networks of large volumes of funds across borders for speculative purposes, specifically in the property sector. Some also argued that these cooperative networks, forged on the basis of group solidarity and determined predominantly by economic considerations, would enable members of the Chinese diaspora to secure control of a large segment of the Asian economy in the post-crisis period.
