Small Chinese minorities dominate Southeast Asian economies out of proportion to their numbers

Evidence

In the early 1990s, Chinese made up 1 percent of the population of the Philippines but were responsible for 35 percent of the sales of domestically owned firms. In Indonesia in the mid 1980s, Chinese were 2-3 percent of the population, but owned roughly 70 percent of the private domestic capital. Seventeen of the twenty-five largest businesses were Chinese-controlled, and one Chinese conglomerate reportedly accounted for 5 percent of Indonesia’s GNP. In the early 1990s Chinese were 10 percent of the population of Thailand but owned nine of the ten largest business groups and were responsible for 50 percent of its GNP. Chinese are about one-third of the population of Malaysia but almost totally dominate the economy. Outside Japan and Korea the East Asian economy is basically a Chinese economy. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 460

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports Grafting & Growth framing: overseas Chinese networks function as organic infrastructure for the mainland economy, paralleling how root grafts build interconnection.
• XREF: Connects to the law-merchant/reputation-economies material on how minority trading diasporas sustain trust across borders.