The importance of the Chinese overseas for China has been rather controversial. In the past, some Western scholars argued that the Chinese overseas were crucial to Beijing and that China's relations with each country hosting the Chinese depended on the latter's treatment of its Chinese minority. Other Western as well as non–Western scholars maintained that the Chinese overseas were not high in China's foreign policy agenda and hence would not be the major determinants of its foreign policy. With the rise of China since the end of the twentieth century, the position of the Chinese overseas has become more important. But does this mean that the first view prevails over the second view now? Would China protect the interests of the Chinese overseas at all costs?

CHINA'S NATIONAL INTEREST AND THE CHINESE OVERSEAS

Foreign policy tends to serve the national interest of a country, and the national interest is defined by its leaders. This also applies to the PRC. It is not easy to define the national interest of China as it may change from period to period. Nevertheless, the PRC, like other countries in the contemporary period, has been concerned with its national security, territorial integrity, political ideology represented by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and social and economic development. In addition, China, as a major power, would like to be the leader of the third world and eventually a world leader. It should be noted that China is an emigrant state that has a large number of Chinese overseas. Therefore, in the earliest PRC Constitution of 1954 and the latest one of 2004, despite several amendments, there has always been a clause to the effect that China would “protect the legitimate interests of huaqiao ”. From this, one can categorically maintain that the protection of the “overseas Chinese” is part of the national interest of China.

The national interest of China has many components. Among these, national security is paramount. National security for China refers to the security of the Chinese nation–state, which involves the survival of China as an entity, domestic political stability, and the survival of the CPC and the ruling elite.