The Chinese are a community of immigrants from China to many countries around the world through different historical periods. Currently, in countries around the world, there are about 60 million Chinese people living, of which the largest is in Southeast Asia, with 40 million people. In Vietnam, the Chinese have lived for a long time, integrated and become a part of the community of 54 ethnic groups, with many contributions to the development of the country through historical periods. The Chinese are a unique ethnic community, with their own characteristics, different from ethnic minorities in Vietnam, such as: residing mainly in urban areas, along waterway and road traffic routes, convenient for production, business and commerce; having the highest level of development among ethnic minorities; having a clear role and influence on Vietnam’s socio-economics; has a strong community relationship not only internally, but also has extensive relations with the Chinese community in the region and around the world, especially with Taiwan and China.
As a special ethnic group, in the process of implementing policies, in addition to general policies, the Party and State also issued a number of specific policies for the Chinese, such as: Directive No. 62-CT/TW dated November 8, 1995 of the Secretariat of the 7th Party Central Committee on strengthening work with the Chinese in the new situation; Directive No. 501/CT-TTg dated August 3, 1996 of the Prime Minister on a number of policies for the Chinese. In these important documents, the Party and State affirmed: “The Chinese are Vietnamese citizens, an ethnic group in the community of Vietnamese ethnic groups, enjoying all rights and performing all obligations of Vietnamese citizens according to the provisions of the Constitution and laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, implementing all common regimes and policies of the Party and State like all other ethnic groups”.
