This study examines demographic developments of the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam since 1975.
It begins with the patterns of demographic change since the mid-1970s that shows a considerable
decline in the number of Chinese as indicated by the official censuses of 1976 and 1979. The period
was characterized by large-scale migration of the Chinese out of the former Democratic Republic of
Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) and the former Republic of Vietnam (ROV or South Vietnam). The
policies of socialist transformation were a major factor in the exodus from the South while in the North
it was the deterioration in relations between Vietnam and China that triggered the exodus. The Chinese
population has continued to diminish up to 2009 but at a more moderate pace than in the late 1970s.