Abstract
This paper studies current China-Thailand relations in the context of migration. Given that Thailand is a country with a long history of Chinese migration and a sizeable portion of its population identifying as Sino-Thai, how Thai society perceives contemporary Chinese investment, arrivals of unprecedented number of Chinese visitors as well as sizable migrant labor should be examined through historically contextualized memories of Chinese immigration. We should think of migrations as historically chained events, and earlier waves of migration affect how later migrants are received and perceived.

The argument the article makes is that we cannot discuss contemporary migration and its reception by the host state, as well as relationship between the sending and receiving states, without considering how the past of migration can shape the ways how the contemporary is perceived. In the context of China and Thailand relations, we should keep in mind the long history of Chinese migration and at times hostile policies the Thai government implemented to deal with such large numbers of migrants.

Anti-Chinese rhetoric thus has historical roots in the history of Chinese migration to Thailand, and one can argue that history still frames some of the explicit or implicit Sinophobia within Thai society. Such historical legacies and the peculiar status of the Sino-Thai thus have created a varied reaction towards the recent Chinese presence in Thailand.

About speaker
Dr Enze Han is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include ethnic politics in China, China's relations with Southeast Asia, and the politics of state formation in the borderland area between China, Myanmar and Thailand. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London.

His research has been supported by the Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and British Council/Newton Fund. During 2015-2016, he was a Friends Founders' Circle Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA.

He is the author of Asymmetrical Neighbours: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China (Oxford University Press, 2013). He has also published numerous articles in World Development, The China Quarterly, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Pacific Review, Security Studies, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Chinese Journal of International Politics, among others.