Geremie Barmé writes on the difficult double standard for overseas Chinese. From the Wall Street Journal:
When things go well and there are opportunities to be grasped, the overseas Chinese, with their inside-track appreciation of the distinctive modus operandi in the People’s Republic, ride high. When the complex nexus of national interest, party-family ties, local power brokers and influence peddlers is antagonized, however, these intuitive insiders, the commercial compradors with local knowledge, are particularly vulnerable. The protective sheath of foreign citizenship proves to be little more than a gossamer.
Geremie R. Barmé is a historian and the director of the Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, Canberra.
