Overseas Chinese everywhere should be concerned about China's aggressive moves in the South China Sea, advancing its territorial claims close to the coasts of littoral states. Specifically, the ethnic Chinese minorities in the concerned Southeast Asian countries need to guard against anything suggesting sympathy for the claims of their former motherland.
That same principle applies to minorities, Chinese or otherwise, wherever they may be. They are reasonably expected to share the community interests of the nations they have joined. This is not an issue of 'My country, right or wrong' but of the reasonable expectation of commitment in return for equal rights. It is especially important for Chinese, given the rise of China as a military and economic power, and the size and scope of the Chinese diaspora.
Compared with some countries in the region, the Philippine Chinese community is quite well integrated. The country has benefited from an influx of Chinese going back several centuries, and such has been the degree of intermarriage that they are integrated into the society and can usually only be distinguished, if at all, by names such as Cojuangco - the maiden name of president Cory Aquino, whose son is now president.
However, there are also many more recent arrivals from China, perhaps now only the second generation, who still identify to some extent with the former motherland. Some of these can be perceived by the wider population as being, at worst, opportunists out to make money, but at best remaining neutral on issues such as the South China/West Philippine sea. Thus, recent events have seen prominent businessmen sitting on the fence. One is quoted in this paper as saying: 'Our biological father is China and our foster father is the Philippines. The two fathers are now quarrelling. We want to patch the relationship up.'
Such divided loyalties are particularly dangerous to the communities from which they spring, if Beijing is perceived to be hostile to their adopted country or using members of the ethnic Chinese community against national interests. Those concerned should remember tragedies in the not-too-distant past. One example was Indonesia in 1965-66 when Chinese suffered more than most from mass killings of those believed to be sympathetic to the communists.
In reality, few Chinese were, but given that Beijing was caught up in Maoist revolutionary ideology, the assumption was not surprising. Likewise in Malaysia, in 1969, anti-Chinese sentiment was shaped by the Beijing-backed communist uprising which so divided the country in the previous decade.
Nor should we forget the consequences for Vietnam's Chinese community of China's 1979 invasion. Most refugees from Vietnam at that time were from that war, not the American war which ended in 1975. A significant proportion were Chinese, either under pressure to leave or looking for an opportunity to get to settlement countries in the West.