Why do Chinese Indonesians or Chinese Indonesian descendants tend to be much wealthier than the rest of the population in Indonesia?
Born and raised in Singapore.
I feel like there are a lot of stereotypical answers here. I wish to give my own perspective.There have been Chinese migrating to the US since the early 19thcentury.However, anti-Chinese sentiment led the US government to limit immigration, and with their numbers deliberately kept low, they all congregrated in Chinatowns in places like New York city and San Francisco. As a minority, they could have gone into businesses, and yes, many did.But ask Americans whom are the richest Americans in the rise of Industrial America and they will give names like Morgan, Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller, not a Chinese name. (FYI, Rockerfeller came from relatively modest backgrounds) 很多人都谈了自己的一些看法，我觉得有些看法可能有些偏见，我也来谈谈自己的意见吧。从19世纪开始，中国人就开始向美国进行迁徙。然而，因为美国一直都有着反华情绪，导致后来中国移民受到了很多的限制，而且他们被限制在特定的区域。他们主要居住在少数的几个城市里面，比如纽约，旧金山等地的中国城里面。作为少数民族，你可以进入商业领域，确实有很多华人是这样做的。但是，在美国工业狂飙突进的100年里，涌现了比如摩根，梅隆，卡内基和洛克菲勒这样的商业巨擘，却极少出现有影响力的华人企业家。Same thing with the UK, there were minority Chinese populations that were kept in low numbers all the way till world war 2. Yet, their business enterprise were not staggering prosperous in any sense.Of course, after World War 2, there was a massive civil rights movement, and caps on immigration was increased. Racial equality meant that Chinese could operate businesses without discrimination.But ask anyone whom are the richest Americans whom made it rich in the late half of the 20th century without inheriting most of it and you would get names like Sam Walton of Walmart, Howard Hughes the eccentric entrepreneur, Bill Gates of Microsoft. 类似情况也出现在英国，直到第二次世界大战之前，英国一直都有着极少量的华人人口，但是他们企业似乎看起来也没有那么成功。当然，在二次世界大战之后，全世界都掀起了民权运动，所以，相应的各个族群的权利也在相应的增加。种族平等意味着中国人可以在没有歧视的情况下经营企业。但是，问问那些在20世纪后半期发家的最富有的美国人，这里面包含有山姆·沃尔顿，霍华德·休斯，微软的比尔·盖茨等企业家。华裔企业家的身影依然非常罕见。Sure,the overseas Chinese were minority models with having all the top students with top marks in schools and low crime rates, and many members of the community becoming lawyers, doctors, even politicians, but not really notable as business tycoons. Does that mean that America was simply too competitive a place for overseas Chinese to get economically prosperous?There have been Chinese in India before world war 2 as well (Chinese community in India - Wikipedia). But a look at the top 100 richest Indians on Forbes’s list and there is not a single Chinese there as well. 当然，海外华人是少数族裔的模范。他们的教育非常出色，而且犯罪率很低。他们有很多人成为律师，医生，甚至是政客，但是他们并不是真正的商业大亨。这是否意味着美国的竞争过于激烈，以至于使得美国的华人无法获得足够的资源用于发展？在二次世界大战之前，也有一些人到了印度。但是看看印度最富有的一百个人里面，却没有一个是华人。（注：历史上华人曾到过印度，但是人数最高的时候也不过几万而已，现在更少，连一万人都不到。）亚裔普遍重视教育，最成功的是印度。印度理工学院是与哈佛、MIT同级的存在。
So what accounts for the difference in Indonesia? Wealth is a funny thing; by every measure, it is a generational thing. Poverty and wealth are like diseases, they pass from one generation to the next. Wealth is also like gravity in action;the more wealth you have, the more business/economic opportunities flow your way. it allows access to better education for your children. If you run a family business, you can pass it to your family members. Take a quick look at the ten richest Indonesian Chinese and you would find that they all share a few similarities:Nearly all were the sons of Chinese traders that migrated from China, i.e second-generation Indonesian Chinese, though some were first-time immigrants from China 现在回到主题，印度尼西亚与英国和美国到底有什么不同？财富是一件有趣的事情，从某种意义上来说，财富具有代际特性。贫穷和财富就像疾病一样，会从上一代人遗传给下一代。而财富就像地球引力一样，你拥有越多的财富，将会有越多的机会飞向你。更多的财富意味着你的孩子将能够接受到更好的教育。如果你经营着一个家族企业，你可以将它传给你的家族成员。看看印度尼西亚最富有的十个华人，你会发现它们都有共同点：他们几乎都是中国商人的后代，他们都是移民到印度尼西亚的。他们大都是第二代的印尼华人，也有少部分是第一代的印尼华人。While they did inherit businesses from their families, their wealth grew at incredible rates during Suharto’s rule. What are the implications of all these? The first is that Indonesian Chinese have always been largely excluded from the political and military spheres in Indonesia. As foreign immigrants, they were never part of the local elite that that Dutch had to co-opt. This was true before Independence and it was even more true after Independence. Suharto controlled Indonesia with 2 different armies: one was the armed forces and the other was the civil service. Both were largely closed off from people of Chinese ethnicity.You may have the rare Indonesian-Chinese politician or general but generally, by and large, most went into private businesses. With every other avenue of growth closed off, many specialize into the private sectors as commercial businessmen. This became the strength of the Indonesian Chinese population. 尽管他们确实从他们的家族里面获得了财富继承的机会，但是他们的财富在苏哈托执政的时期却有了飞速的增长。这意味着什么呢？首先，印尼华人基本上被排除在了印度尼西亚的政治和军事领域之外。作为外国移民，他们从来都不是当地政治精英的一部分。印度尼西亚曾经是荷兰的殖民地，在荷兰人统治时期，华人就不允许参与到政治当中去。印度尼西亚独立以后就更是如此了。苏哈托控制着印尼，他有两股支持者：一个是军队，另一个是公务员队伍。这两者在很大程度上都与中国移民没有什么关系。可能会有极少数的印尼的政治人物是华人后裔，但是总体上来看，华人主要进入了私营商业部门工作，这使得中国的移民在印尼工商业的影响力增加。Now,generally, by and large, the average Indonesian-Chinese is economically better off than the average Indonesia and there are 2 key reasons for these: Obsession with education：Making sure that you pass on a good life to your descendents. This is, by large, mostly true for most people living in a Chinese culture.Thus,with consistent generational transfer of wealth and also a focus on education an uplifting tool, by and large, most overseas Chinese diaspora tend to be the perfect picture of a “model minority”, in terms of education, wealth, and with low crime rates. This is true in US, UK and Australia. 但是总体上来看，印尼华人的状况要比印尼的平均水平要好，我觉得以下两点至关重要： 对教育的重视：如果一个人想要他的后代能够过上好的生活，那他一定要让他的子女接受良好的教育。对于很多华人来讲，这是他们的基本信条，这是符合中国的文化传统的。财富在代际之间不断传承，持续的对教育进行投入，将教育作为阶层跃升的工具，这种综合素质的影响就使得海外华人逐渐成为了“模范族群”——高学历、高收入、低犯罪率。在美国、英国和澳大利亚，华人确实是这么做的，堪称模范族群。But very few Chinese in US, UK and Australia reached staggering levels of wealth asa few Indonesian-Chinese did in Indonesia. What is the difference? A key issue lies in the fact that Indonesia Chinese were eternally viewed as “foreigners”in Indonesia. Being locked out of political and military participation in the early days of the Indonesian republic, Suharto saw them as useful allies. He granted a few second-generation Indonesian-Chinese businessmen sole and exclusive “licenses” (e.g. monopolies etc) in certain industries, such as in trading or commodities. With monopolies in hand, they amassed vast wealth but no political power.
但是在英国和美国或澳大利亚，却极少有华人能够达到印尼华人的那样的水平，这中间的主要区别在哪里呢？一个关键的区别是——印度尼西亚华人永远被视为“外国人”。早期，他们一直被锁在了政治和军事部门之外，苏哈托只是将他们作为临时的盟友来对待。 在某些行业——比如贸易或者商品流通，他授予了好几个二代华人以特许商业经营权。因有了这些垄断的权利，他们积累了大量的财富，但是他们没法拥有政治权利。This was possible because as perpetual outsiders, they would never be rivals to his political power, but would be useful (and submissive) partners in aclient-patronage system. With their vast wealth, any Indonesian political or general could tap on them for “funding” or “monetary resources”, since the licenses that made so much money for the Indonesian-Chinese tycoons depended solely on the good grace of the politicians. Of course, most of these monopolies don’t exist since after 1998, but the Indonesian-Chinese Kongsi(conglomerates) have become so entrenched in the economy that the momentum of their economic power is unstoppable. 这是可行的，因为华人永远无法参与到政治当中来，所以他们不会成为你的竞争对手，他们会成为很好的合作伙伴。因为华人拥有着大量的经济资源，所以他们可以为印尼的官员或军队提供大量的支持。华人究竟能够赚到多少钱？这很大程度上取决于印尼政府的态度。当然，在1998年之后，这种垄断地位已经不复存在。但是印尼的华人在经济界的地位已经根深蒂固，以至于很难再有什么力量能够影响到他们，他们在经济界的影响力变得不可阻挡。
Thus,the key difference lie in the fact that Indonesia’s economy ultimately depends on a client-patronage system, in which a select few Indonesia-Chinese were successfully able to exploit, while western economies were, more or less,free-market economies. I have interacted with Chinese towkays before, from different countries, and one key factor is that all were somewhat dependent on a client-patronage-network for deals and contracts, in one way or another. Some calls this the “Bamboo network”, others call this “Guanxi”, while a few would describe this as “corruption”. Regardless of what the proper term is, it means that they do deals but they don’t do actual business strategy. And that is a key weakness, because it is a myth that the Chinese are somewhat better are being wealthy. if that was true, then Microsoft would have been founded by a Chinese-American, while Sam Walton and Howard Hughes would have been Chinese-American - except that is not the case. 英美和印尼的主要区别在于印尼的市场是政府主导的，而英美的市场很大程度上是属于自由竞争，这样使得英美的华人很难获得这样的垄断的机会。我曾经和很多中国的老板打过交道，这些华人老板分布在不同的国家，他们很大程度上都依赖于各自建立的关系网。有人把这称为“竹网”，有人把这称为“关系”，有些人把这称为“腐败”。不管你究竟把这个东西称为什么，这都意味着他们在做交易，而不是在进行真正的商业战略规划。这是一个非常大的问题，华人比其他族群更富裕，这可能是一个神话。因为如果这是真的话，那么微软将应该是由华裔创造的，而山姆.沃尔顿和霍华德.休斯也应该是华裔美国人，但是事实并非如此。华人重视教育，也愿意捐资助学。古天乐默默地为内陆捐助了一百多所小学/教学楼，以及几十所卫生室、一千多口水窖
As a child, I once asked my father this exact same question. He answered my question based on his anecdotal experience which is probably not accurate, but could give some insight. His answer was:When I was just a little boy, Chinese Indonesian was just as poor as the rest of us.They started as small business. But what makes them able to expand the business more rapidly because they invested heavily in their business. They give their blood, sweat and tears developing their family business so that their family could one day live comfortably. If they earn Rp1000, they will only use Rp100to indulge on their personal hobby. They will then use the rest of the money to expand their business. The were more than happy to hold off buying fancy shirts and jewelries. In short, they were willing to give up personal posession to expand the business. 当我还是个孩子的时候，我曾经向我爸爸问过类似的问题。他以他自身的一些经历来回答这个问题。当然，他的答案可能不是那么准确，但是可以给我们一些启发。他的回答是这样的： 他还是个小男孩的时候，印尼华人和印尼马来人一样穷。然后，华人开始做一些小生意。因为前期他们在商业上面投入了大量的精力，使得他们在后来能够进行更快的扩张。他们为自己的家族生意付出汗水，泪水甚至鲜血。他们的目的就是想要家庭未来能够过上更好的生活。如果他们赚了一千块钱，他们会将一百块钱用来支付他们个人的享受，剩下的900块钱投入到他们的生意当中去。他们很少会去买昂贵的衬衫或者是漂亮的珠宝。简而言之，他们愿意为了扩大自己的商业版图而牺牲个人的享受。
As I get older, I see that there are Rich Chinese Indonesian and there are Poor Chinese Indonesian, just as there are Rich Native Indonesian and Poor Native Indonesian. It all down to personal effort and/or luck really, as we can't really put Chinese Indonesian or Native Indonesian for that matter in one big stereotype. Personally, I think it that 'Native and Chinese-Indonesian' dichotomy is an outdated concept. Because while their ancestors came from China, they ARE Indonesian, they were born in Indonesia,speak Indonesian, pay taxes in Indonesia, hold Indonesian passport, familiarwith Indonesian pop culture and so on. Sure, they may have squint eyes and fairer skin than Native Indonesian, but that doesn't make them any less Indonesian than Native. 后来我慢慢长大，我发现印尼既有富裕的华人，也有贫穷的华人。就好像印尼当地人一样。这一切很大程度上归结于个人的努力或者是运气。我们不能用一个过分简化的模型来认识这种分化。就我个人来看，能简单的二分法是一种过时的观念。因为尽管他们的先辈是来自于中国，但是他们现在已经是一名印尼人了，他们出生在印尼，说着印尼语，为印尼政府纳税，拿印尼护照，与印尼人共享着印尼的流行文化。确实，他们有着比土著更细长的眼睛和更白的皮肤，但他们一点都不缺乏印尼特征。
I am a Eurasian (Swiss-Indonesian) but, due to my father’s position in the community, I was raised western style and followed high school upwards in the Netherlands. I worked in Jakarta from 1987 -2003 as an ICT Consultant for the national government. 我是一个欧亚混血儿，我的父亲是瑞士人，母亲是印度尼西亚人。因为我父亲在社区是一个很有声望的人，所以我被以西方的方式来进行培养。我的高中生涯是在荷兰度过的。在1987年至2003年间，我一直都在雅加达工作。我担任印度尼西亚国家信息通信技术顾问。
During my stay I befriended many Indonesian nationals and those of Chinese Indonesian descent in all layers of the population. One day I had a discussion with a very good friend, a successful Chinese Indonesian descendant. I asked him precisely the same question. I had noticed that the average full-blooded Indonesian often was far less successful and had big problems making ends meet. At the end of their money there is always a large chunk of month left to go. They usually like to spend their money on gadgets an consumables to impress their environment with. I asked my friend if Chinese people were smarter than Indonesians. But I was surprised and much enlightened by his answer.China is a massive country with lots of people.It was very hard to make a living in China; lack of resources, facilities and money. So people looked for other countries to try and make a living. 在我逗留印尼的那段时间里，我认识了很多的华裔印尼人以及印尼本地人。有一天，我和我的一个好朋友进行了一番讨论，我的好朋友是一个很成功的华裔的印尼人。我问了他同样的问题。我注意到，纯印尼血统的本地人通常都很不成功，而且他们的财务计划似乎也有些问题。当他们把钱快使用光了的时候，他们总会把这些钱中的最大的一部分用来买一些小配件之类的东西，这样可以使他们看起来好一些。我特意的问了我的中国朋友，我问他是否觉得中国人比印度尼希亚人更聪明。他的回答让我很惊讶，同时也让我深受启发。中国是一个人口众多的大国，在中国谋生是一件非常困难的事情。中国资源贫乏，设施也比较落后，而且缺乏资金，所以中国人会去其他国家寻求更好的生活环境。
When they come to Indonesia they find themselves in someone else’s country, where people are also struggling to make a living. The difference being that these new Chinese families had nothing to fall back on, no relatives, since they had left everything behind. So they realised they would have to work hard for little money in order to be competitive with the locals. The little money they earned they saved for eventual rainy days. So out of every 1000 Rupiahs they would take 300 Rupiah for food and living quarters, 250 Rupiahs for education of the kids, 250Rupiahs reservation for medicine and the rest for savings. And they kept this formula. When they had saved enough money they still adhered to the same formula, they still would not buy a big car, luxury clothes and such. 当他们来到印度尼西亚的时候，他们有着浓厚的“外来者”的情节，印度尼西亚的人民也在努力的谋生。不同的是，这些来到一名下的人，没有什么可以依靠的，没有亲戚，没有朋友，他们把一切都留在了老家。因此，他们意识到，他们必须要用极有限的资源去和别人进行竞争。尽管他们挣的钱很少，他们也会把钱小心的存起来，以备不时之需。所以如果他们赚了一千印尼盾，他们花在吃的上面的钱大概只有300印尼盾。250印尼盾用于子女的教育，250印尼盾存起来以备患病之需。剩下的200印尼盾会存起来。他们一直都按照这个原则行事，即使他们已经攒够了一些钱，他们依然谨守规矩。他们绝对不会把这些钱拿去买一辆车，奢侈品或者是其他的东西。
If they could invest, they would do that in a house, and in education for the kids. They would not squander their money in luxury items, they would look at every expense and make it an investment. If they bought a car, it would be just enough so they could do their business.Their food would still be the same, no luxuries. Their clothing would be just enough to be presentable, no more! When they could invest in business, then they would only invest in reliability and profitability. That is how they eventually own large businesses. Eventually they just make money because they have money. They are also very smart in making use of the greed of others. They'buy' the locals and make them dependent of them and also make them their front men. These Chinese-Indonesians don't like to be noticeable, realising fully well that it could cause envy.I then started looking around and found lots of confirmation of this theory around me. I had an Internet Development office in Jakarta. I rented an office in a 3-storey building. At the ground floor there was a little grubby shop where the building owner had his own little place. He sold gold and silver trinkets. He was Chinese-Indonesian. 如果他们有投资的机会，他们就会投资房地产，或者是为子女的教育投资。他们绝对不会把钱花在奢侈品上，他能把每一次花费都当作是投资。如果他们买了一辆车，一定是因为他们的生意需要他买车。他们的饮食也会始终如一，没有很奢华的东西。他们穿的衣服也会尽可能的俭省，不会有多余的东西。当他们进行商业投资的时候，他们只会投资于可靠性比较高，而且能够获利的行业。这就是为什么很多华裔最后能够建立起自己的产业。他们最终之所以能赚钱，因为他们曾经攒够了足够的资本。华人在利用别人的贪婪方面也很有技巧。他们收买了当地人，这些当地人必须要依靠这些华裔，而这些印尼人会作为这些华裔的代理人，他们不想在印尼引起太多的关注，过度的关注往往会导致嫉妒。
Nutritionist, Medical AdviserIt is not why the Indonesian Chinese are much wealthier than the rest of the population in Indonesia. It is why the Chinese is much wealthier than the rest of the local population wherever they have settled throughout the world I have travelled to a lot of countries during my student days, and I have observed this everywhere I go especially in the developing countries, be it in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia or Philippines, and even in Australia, or in Canada or in parts of United States The answer is very simple. The Chinese is an extremely hard working race oppressed by thousands of years of political uprising in the warring states, suffered hardship and poverty in their homeland in ancient China. That made them a very hardy,ambitious, resilient, durable and hard-working race on this planet. It is the just the question of survival of the fittest in the human race. 你不应该问“为何印尼的华人比当地人更富裕？” 你应该问“为何世界各地的华人普遍都比当地人更富裕？”在我还是一个学生的时候，我曾经去过世界很多国家，我已经注意到这个现象，这一现象在发展中国家特别明显。无论你说的是印度，孟加拉国，印度尼西亚或菲律宾，甚至连澳大利亚，加拿大和美国的很多地区都是如此。其实答案非常简单——华人是一个工作非常努力的民族，他们经历了数千年的王朝史，他们需要付出大量的体力和智力去解决问题。在历史上也经常会遇到各种苦难，灾荒，贫穷。他们非常努力，野心勃勃，坚韧不拔，百折不挠，他们成为这个星球上一只非常有生命力的力量。其实这是一个简单的生存游戏——你要如何才能够生存下去？But once political oppressions are lifted,and opportunities given to them, they just rise, and rise above all other races. We see this phenomenon outside China in SE Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand just after the World War II In all countries where the Chinese are the majority like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore and where they are not oppressed but given the opportunity to create wealth for themselves and the country, you can clearly see this effect not just among the Chinese, but the impact on the economy for the whole country. 世界很多地方对于外来移民都有一定的限制，一旦这种政治上的压制被解除，一旦他们获得机会，他们就会崛起，并开始超越其他的民族。在二次世界大战之后，中国以外的其他的东亚地区都出现了这样的现象。比如印度尼西亚，马来西亚，新加坡和泰国。任何一个地区，只要华人能够占据主导，比如香港，台湾和新加坡。只要他们不是被压迫，他们能够回来的机会，他们就能够为自己和国家创造财富。这种影响并非仅仅只是限于华人内部，而是会蔓延到整个国家。
Even in Malaysia where only about 22 % of the population of about 30 million is Chinese, they still are the richest even when most of the economic opportunities were given to the local Malays since the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971. Yet they still survive very well even when the NEP was extended and even expanded until today.Their ambition to succeed and rise up is just in their blood no matter how much you suppressed them. 马来西亚有3000万人口，大约22%是华人，他们依然非常富裕。你可能不知道！马来西亚当地的很多资源和机会，只是给当地人，不给华人。自1971年马来西亚开始实行新经济政策以来，这种局面已经持续非常久了。这个政策直到今天依然有效。但是尽管如此，这些华人依然生存的很好。事实上，马来西亚的华人被边缘化后，他们依然非常的坚强，依然韧性十足。无论你如何限制他们，都无法压制他们对于成功的渴望。
The Chinese still hold most of the business because of their resilient to hardship and difficulties. That made them even more fit and willing to survive above all other races. In fact being deprived of scholarships and entry into local public universities, they work even harder to send their children to study in expensive overseas universities. That ambition is in their blood. It is just the law of Nature of Nature that prescribes “survival of the fittest” in the long run. The Chinese strongly believes that if you just continue to give a man a fish every day without helping him to fish and defend himself, you will eventually weaken him even more. 今日华人控制了马来西亚绝大部分商业。马来西亚的华人被剥夺了奖学金，他们进入当地公立大学的名额很少。马来西亚当地是不鼓励华文教育，当地华人就自己筹钱，建立华文学校。但是，这些学校的学历是不被马来西亚政府承认的。因为这个原因，他们甚至愿意花更大的钱才让他们的孩子去海外读书。这大概也是华人的一种习惯吧。从长期的历史来看，这是典型的大自然的法则——适者生存。中国人有一个信念——如果你只是给人一条鱼，但是你不教他捕鱼，那么最终这个人将会逐渐虚弱下去。
He will then become regressive instead of becoming stronger and independent after a period of continuous feeding. The Chinese believes that over a period of time he will become aggressive and begins to get angry and revoke against the feeder if the feeder no longer can afford to continue giving him his daily fish. Hence their proverb taught them to fend for themselves to become even more resilient and robust. The Chinese do not beg, or expect wealth to drop down upon them from heaven or simply given to them, not necessary just in Indonesia.They are guided by the wisdom of their ancient proverb that says “give a man a fish, you feed him only for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you feed him for life” This is part of their ancient wisdom. Because of their nature for hard work and preparedness to struggle in adversity for 5000 years in their history and civilization, this belief and nature becomes incorporated in their genes and blood, and becomes part of their character. 这个人将逐渐退步，而不是变得更强或者是更独立。而且，中国人认为，如果这种情况持续下去，有一天你不再给这个人鱼的话，他还会反过来怨恨你。他们的格言教导他们“战胜自我，不断变强！”中国人不会乞讨，不崇尚天上掉馅饼这样的美事，在印度尼西亚也是如此。他们古老的格言教育他们——授之以鱼，不如授之以渔。这是中国古老的智慧。他们在历史长河中已经奋战了五千年，这种信念已经深入到他们的骨髓里面去了。
We see this very clearly in modern China today with 1.34 billion hard working Chinese there, and another 100 million Chinese settled outside China today, especially in Singapore, Taiwan and HongKong SAR where they flourished untamed and given every opportunity and freedom to proper as Asian economic dragons for their nations. I think wherever the Chinese have chosen to settle in a country outside China they bring tremendous wealth to that country. We can see this in SE Asian countries where the Chinese flourished. They bring wealth and economy there through sheer hard work. I was told that the Chinese population in Indonesia is only 2 % out of 200 million people, but they hold 80 % of the economy? I am not sure how far this is true,but I know most of them are exceedingly rich compared with the locals When I was a postgraduate student in the mid 1966’s at the University of London, I remember clearly what one of our visiting professors told us:“the quality of a nation does not depend on the quantity of the people in the country, but the quality of her citizens” 在现代的中国，这种趋势愈加明显。中国有13.4亿努力工作的人，有另外一亿华人散布在世界各地。这主要包括新加坡、台湾和香港特区，这几个地区都成了亚洲经济四小龙。在我看来，无论中国人选择在中国还是在世界其他的地方工作，他们都能够为所在国带来巨大的经济利益。我们可以在亚洲的很多国家看到华人的成就。我曾经看过一些材料，这些材料说印度尼西亚的华人只占当地人口的2%，但是他们掌握了印尼私人财富的80%？我不知道这个数据的准确性到底有多高。但是我知道，他们与大多数当地人比起来的话，他们要富裕的多。1966年的时候，我在伦敦大学读研究生，我清楚的记得我们的一位客座教授告诉我们的话——一个国家的质量并不取决于这个国家的人口的数量，而是取决于这个国家国民的素质的。
All these achievements are just because of their hard work and determinations. Their wealth did not drop down from heaven for them, nor do they beg for them, nor were they given to them for free.I hope this explains why the Indonesian Chinese do much better and more wealthy than the rest of the local populations. It is the same scenario everywhere where there are Chinese. During my students days I saw them live more decently, dress more smartly, speaks fluent English, much more educated, much more westernized,eat and live in houses much better than the local population, and do business very successfully. Their attitude is entirely different from the mind-set of the native population. I saw this in every country I visited and stayed, not just in Indonesia.
这一切的成就都是由于努力拼搏而得来的。中国人的财富并不是天上掉下来的，他们也没有乞求任何人，一切都不是免费的。我希望这个回答能够为“为何华人普遍比印尼人更富裕”这个问题提供一个解释。当我还是学生的时候，我见到的华人通常都举止得体，穿着讲究，英语流利，受到良好的教育，很西方化，他们当时住的房子普遍比当地人要更好，他们做生意也非常成功。他们很多想法与当地人也非常不同。我周游列国，在世界各地停留，我所看到的东西是基于我的亲眼所见，我并非仅仅只是讲印度尼西亚的状况。
Tiny Singapore for instance is one of the wealthiest countries in the world with 75 % Chinese there, and is just next door to Malaysia.I quote what Nobel Prize laureate and novelist Pearl S. Buck said about the Chinese race:“Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors. They are the oldest civilized people on earth. Their civilization passes through phases but its basic characteristics remain the same. They yield, they bend to the wind,but they never break.” 新加坡有75%的人口是华人，这是世界上最富有的国家之一。新加坡是马来西亚的邻居，我引用一下诺贝尔文学获得者“珀尔·巴克”（译者注：唯一 一个同时获得普利策奖和诺贝尔奖的女作家，也是目前作品流传语种最多的美国作家。）对中国人的评价： 没有什么能摧毁中国人民。他们是无情的幸存者。他们历史悠久，文脉不绝。虽历经劫难而初心不改——身起随风势，风落不折枝。
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