Chinese in Tonga

A significant Chinese presence in Tonga is relatively recent.

In 2001 there were approximately 3,000 or 4,000 Chinese in Tonga, comprising 3 or 4% of the total Tongan population.

There were approximately three or four thousand Chinese people living in Tonga in 2001, thus comprising 3 or 4% of the total Tongan population.

* Sino-Tongan relations

In 2001, Tonga's Chinese community (of about three or four thousand people) was hit by a wave of about a hundred racist assaults.

In the 1990s, the Tongan government controversially sold Tongan passports to Chinese nationals and residents of Hong Kong, enabling them to settle in Tonga and leading to the appearance of a visible Chinese community in the South Pacific kingdom.

In 1999, the Tonga Chinese Association reported around 40 cases of harassment of Chinese businessmen, including several assaults, and Tonga's then-Crown Prince Tupoutoa condemned what he called "the racially motivated and cowardly violence which young jobless and, dare I say it, hopeless Tongans, visited on our Chinese-owned shops [in 1999]; an act of such barbarity that it shamed and disgusted me and every other Tongan of my generation".

In 2000, local authorities in Nukunuku banned all Chinese shops from the district.

Tongan Prime Minister Prince Ulakalala Lavaka Ata responded to the violence by announcing that 600 Chinese residents would not have their work permits renewed, and would have to leave the country.

This policy contradicted King Taufaahau Tupou IV's publicly expressed wish to see more Chinese immigrants settle in Tonga.

In 2006, riots in the Tongan capital, Nukualofa, mainly targeted Chinese-owned businesses, leading to the emigration of several hundred Chinese.

In 2006, riots in the Tongan capital, Nukualofa, mainly targeted Chinese-owned businesses, leading to the emigration of several hundred Chinese.

There also are several hundred Chinese.

Chinese Tongans are Tonga's main ethnic minority group, and have been subjected to significant levels of racism, including racist violence, since the late 1990s.

In 2001, Tonga's Chinese community (a population of about three or four thousand people) was hit by a wave racist assaults.

In 2001, Tonga's Chinese community (of about three or four thousand people) was hit by a wave of about a hundred racist assaults.