Thread: Chinese Filipinos fear fallout amid escalating tensions between Manila, Beijing

“They tend to see a Chinese person and say: ‘You are Chinese, you should leave our country’," said Filipino civic leader Teresita Ang See, an ethnic Chinese born and raised in Manila.


CNA speaks to the Chinese Filipino community in Manila to find out about the discrimination they face amid rising bilateral tensions between China and the Philippines.

VIDEO HERE Chinese Filipinos fear fallout amid escalating tensions between Manila, Beijing - CNA

A neighbor of mine told me the other day that there was some kind of “no Chinese” gathering going on in Chiang Mai. I couldn’t find any news that it happened so don’t know if it’s true or not.

There is a big difference in being an ethnic Chinese in the land of your birth and being a Chinese national from China.

Originally Posted by misskit

A neighbor of mine told me the other day that there was some kind of “no Chinese” gathering going on in Chiang Mai. I couldn’t find any news that it happened so don’t know if it’s true or not.

There is a big difference in being an ethnic Chinese in the land of your birth and being a Chinese national from China.

Sometimes mobs do not differentiate.

May 1998 riots of Indonesia - Wikipedia

Scary, that.

My wife spent two weeks locked in her house during that, watching the fires and smoke grow around her family home/community which friends and neighbours shared each rumour of what was happening (no WhatsApp or Twitter back then, and media was tightly controlled). The truth is probably somewhere halfway between official reports and what they heard.

In PH, I think there's a distinction between Chinese Filipinos who've lived in PH for decades vs the main landers who've only been here for < 10 years.I've had classmates since grade school who were ethnically Chinese (some were half Chinese/Fil, dome were full). Many of them were considered as "rich kids" in our school. Their parents engaged in business. The kids (my classmates) all spoke Tagalog & English and were fully integrated in PH society. They were Catholics, not Buddhists. However, they were "provincial" Chinese.The lady mentioned in the article, Teresita Ang See, is a prominent businesswoman - I've seen her in TV interviews. She's part of the "Binondo Chinese" - those who live in Chinatown in Binondo, Manila. I've heard that they're more closed off/ insular, they send their kids to Chinese schools in Manila, they speak Chinese languages at home, etc. (For my classmates, they spoke Tagalog at home).Many of big businesses in the PH are owned by Fil-Chinese families. SM malls & real estate, Robinsons malls & real estate, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Metrobank group, etc.

One of my Fil-Chinese classmates said that her regret is that she didn't learn how to speak Chinese or go to a Chinese school. This was many years ago; I don't know if she has learned Chinese/ Mandarin in recent years.

Divisions and racism will be fuelled by recession and difficulty when lazy politicians will play the nationalist card or punch down on minorities, it is alas universal in my experience.

What do you think is Phils public opinion are they mainly Pro American rather than Chinese, I am well aware of teh naval encounters and PRC encroachments on the reefs of the S China Sea. Perhaps like Trump the Philipiines need rename that sea too as it is much nearer to you than mainland China.

A poll of TD members will almost ineveitably choose Cerulaen , tho winnie the Poo Sea would make the point too.

There are a lot of ethnically Chinese families here in the North who have no telltale signs in their homes or business of any link to China. They would be pretty offended if you called them Chinese. I have heard Thais sneer “jek” from time to time but it’s coming from people who have migrated to the North from other areas of Thailand.

Originally Posted by katie23

In PH, I think there's a distinction between Chinese Filipinos who've lived in PH for decades vs the main landers who've only been here for < 10 years.I've had classmates since grade school who were ethnically Chinese (some were half Chinese/Fil, dome were full). Many of them were considered as "rich kids" in our school. Their parents engaged in business. The kids (my classmates) all spoke Tagalog & English and were fully integrated in PH society. They were Catholics, not Buddhists. However, they were "provincial" Chinese.The lady mentioned in the article, Teresita Ang See, is a prominent businesswoman - I've seen her in TV interviews. She's part of the "Binondo Chinese" - those who live in Chinatown in Binondo, Manila. I've heard that they're more closed off/ insular, they send their kids to Chinese schools in Manila, they speak Chinese languages at home, etc. (For my classmates, they spoke Tagalog at home).Many of big businesses in the PH are owned by Fil-Chinese families. SM malls & real estate, Robinsons malls & real estate, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Metrobank group, etc.

One of my Fil-Chinese classmates said that her regret is that she didn't learn how to speak Chinese or go to a Chinese school. This was many years ago; I don't know if she has learned Chinese/ Mandarin in recent years.

In the 90,s I noticed Chinese Filipinos seemed to control the hardware shops in all provinces, Filipinos that I interacted with said they viewed them as rich . They used to get kidnapped for ransom a lot I noticed.

Originally Posted by david44

Divisions and racism will be fuelled by recession and difficulty when lazy politicians will play teh national card or punch down on minorities, it is alas universal in my experience.

What do you think is Phils public opinion are they mainly Pro American rather than Chinese, I am well aware of teh naval encounters and PRC encroachments on the reefs of teh S China Sea. Perhaps like Trump teh Philipiines need rename that sea too as it is much nearer to you than mainland China.

A poll of TD members will almost ineveitably choose Cerulaen , tho winnie the Poo Sea would make the point too.

That's very true. It's election time in Australia where it's compulsory to vote. The opposition to the current govt do nothing but punch down on the immigrant and devide. Helped along by the sky Murdoch media and a few bloated billionaires. Quite shocking really

@david44 - I think most Filipinos would still prefer Americans vs Chinese (but Filipinos don't want to be the 51st or 52nd state). I remember when Rodrigo Duterte became president and he pivoted towards China, there were "Spam vs Ma-ling" memes which came out. (Ma-ling is a brand of luncheon meat from China, similar to Spam but cheaper)

@BLD - yes, many hardware stores in provinces are owned by ppl who have Chinese ethnicity (full, half, 1/4, etc). They also own other businesses. One of my classmates - her family owned furniture shops. Another classmate - his family owned gasoline stations. He had a large house (friends & I visited once), he had a large collection of Nike Air shoes and he was brought to & from school by his own driver. (He lived in another town.) And yeah, the richer Fil-Chinese families were often targeted for kidnapping.

Nowadays, for the mainlanders who are involved in the online casinos, they kidnap & target each other. They also have apps where they can "order" girls, just like Grab/ Uber food delivery. (as reported in PH news)