ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at resistance to Chinese influence in various countries around the world, in order to provide a comparative framework for the study of resistance in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In some countries around China’s periphery, such as Myanmar and Laos, as well as in Africa, there is the complaint that Chinese businessmen are taking over the trading or manufacturing sectors. Issues of dumping, commodity neo-colonialism, environmental damage and competition with local businesses often come together to create broad-based dissatisfaction with the Chinese role in the local economy. Chinese influence can also pose an indirect impact on security by destabilizing the balance of power in a region. Singapore, which alone among the Southeast Asian states has an ethnic Chinese majority, is allergic to the appearance of undue Chinese influence both in order to maintain harmony between the majority and ethnic Malay and Indian minorities, and in order to avoid friction with its majority-Malay neighboring states.
