External China as a New Policy Area

T HIS ESSAY SEEKS TO SHOW that some recent developments in the People's Republic of China mark the emergence of a new policy area that may be called External China (Waihua Zhengce).' This policy area would focus mainly on people outside the P.R.C. who are Chinese nationals of one kind or another as well as those people within China who are related to, and are identified with, ethnic Chinese outside China. This means that it is not simply about foreign policy or about matters outside China. Nor is it merely about the traditional Overseas Chinese or Huaqiao (Chinese sojourners) as commonly understood to include everybody who was of Chinese descent outside China. The new policy area includes people and problems inside China and therefore concerns aspects of domestic policy. For the moment, it seems to be a grey or ill-defined area that covers a large number of people inside and outside China, involves a mixture of foreign and domestic policies, and is the responsibility of a wide variety of central and local officials who have to work together on related problems. In addition, because it seems inclusive and ill-defined, it appears to be a growth area that has ramifications even more subtle and complex than the older policy area that concerned itself with all Overseas Chinese.2