A Study On The Development Of Overseas Chinese In Korea And Korea Government’s Relevant Policies

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who liveoutside the Greater China Area （Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan）. Inthe past few years, overseas Chinese have made a great contribution to China’sindependence and rejuvenation, as well as its reform and modernization drive.Overseas Chinese of Korea are recorded on the Korean peninsula as early as the13thcentury. However, there was little recognizable community until1882, when theQing Dynasty sent one admiral and3.000troops at the request of the Koreangovernment to aid in quelling a rebellion. Accompanying the troops were40Chinesemerchants and other civilians. In the same year, Qing Dynasty lifted restrictions oncoastal trade and signed ‘the Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade BetweenChinese and Korean Subjects’, and two further agreements the following year, whichgranted Chinese merchants permission to trade in Korea. In the beginning, overseasChinese of Korea was formed under the governmental support. However, their growthwas based on their internal power, mainly their financial network among themselves.Unlike in other Asian countries,90%of the early overseas Chinese in Korea camefrom Shandong, rather than the southern coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.During the late19^th and early20^th century, overseas Chinese of Korea did quite wellin trade. By1910, when Korean formally came under Japanese rule, the number ofChinese in Korea had risen to12,000. Prior to and during the Korean War, manyChinese residing in the northern half of the Korean peninsula migrated to the southernhalf. After the division of Korea, the Chinese population in South Korea wouldremain stable for some time. However, Korean government began to implementsuppressive policies which severely harmed the interests of the Chinese community.Since1950s, Korea is unique known as intentional regulatory policies againstoverseas Chinese. Korean government’s policies of discrimination prevented Chinesefrom becoming a Korean citizen, thus isolating them from the Korean society. However, diplomatic normalization in1992between China and Korea has broughtevaluation of overseas Chinese in Korea in diversified respects. Overseas Chinese inKorea have attracted social interest in Korea from the perspectives of human right andeconomic resources. The Korean government policies towards them had experienceda drastic change. Many discriminative measures against them were abolished andreduced in degree.On the other side, overseas Chinese community in Korea is still outside thebeneficiary of Sino-Korean diplomatic normalization. The degree of localization ofthem is considerably low when compared to the overseas Chinese in the southeastAsia. And the status of Chinese community in Korea has not shown remarkableupgrade judging from present changes.Although there have been numerous studies of overseas Chinese in different partsof the world, Chinese in Korea has been relatively neglected as a subject of research.This thesis is designed to explore the present situation of overseas Chinese in Koreaand policy changes of Korean government about them. It aims to explore the way andprocess of adaptation of the overseas Chinese in Korea and try to find a better solutionin terms of the policies changes of Korean government.It should be noted that the overseas Chinese are quite important resources for bothChina and Korea. Their manpower need to be actively utilized in the era ofglobalization and spur Sino-Korean relationship. With China’s economic and socialdevelopment, we should pay more attention to the issue of protecting the legal rightsand interests of overseas Chinese in Korea and fully express their aspirations toimprove their livelihood. We must search for an alternative to get their ethnic identitynot a weakness but a pride. We can predict that consequently, the Korea governmentwould accept the overseas Chinese in Korea as a nation constitute and support thecommunity in order to integrate them into Korean society, so as to harmonize therelationship with two countries.