It wasn’t until Spanish rule that relations between the Chinese and Filipinos became strained. When the Spaniards felt that mercantile work was beneath them but believed Filipinos to be too indolent to take charge of the mercantile trade, the matter was delegated to the Chinese settlers.

In truth, the Chinese settlers, like the indigenous Filipinos, were subject to Spanish abuse. The Spanish suppressed their Chinese subjects through mass expulsions, excessive taxation, racial segregation, forced labor, and other means of persecution

One of the most extreme ways Spanish abuse took form was in the mass killings of Chinese settlers. Every so often, the Chinese settlers would grow too large in number or rebel against their Spanish oppressors. In an effort to address the threat and maintain control, the Spanish government would massacre the Chinese settlers.

At least six incidents of massacre occurred during the 300 years of Spanish rule. In total, upwards of 100,000 Chinese were slaughtered. As part of the anti-Chinese movement, Spaniards conscripted Filipinos to enact this violence on their behalf.

Tensions between the Philippine Chinese and Filipinos continued to rise after the Spanish Government handed over the Philippines to the United States.

The United States government enacted the 1902 Chinese Exclusion Act to ban the entry of Chinese laborers into the US as a response to racist claims that Chinese immigrants were responsible for depressed wages. At the time, the Chinese comprised 0.002% of the US population.

American legislators used the Benevolent Assimilation policy to justify the extension of the Chinese exclusion act to the Philippines to allay American fears about Chinese laborers using the colony as a gateway to the US.

The decision to extend it to the Philippines was not guided by the true conditions in the colony. The resentment of Filipinos lied not towards Chinese laborers but Chinese merchants, who are among the classes exempt from the ban.

Chinese who wanted to escape the harsh conditions in China had few options but to become merchants. This influx of merchants only fueled animosity.

In the years that came, legislation was passed to the tune of the Chinese Exclusion Act that attempted to harass and economically undermine the Chinese. Two such laws were the 1921 Chinese Bookkeeping Act and the 1954 Retail Trade Nationalization. Ethnic killings of the Chinese also spilled over into this period of Philippine history.

Despite the legal status of the Chinese as Filipinos after mass naturalization took place in the 70s, anti-Chinese sentiment continued to linger. Advocates for racial nationalism akin to that which existed during the Spanish era continue to espouse what some Chinese Filipinos call racist rhetoric.

In the late 1990s, Armando “Jun” Ducat Jr., along with other members of Kadugong Liping Pilipino (Kalipi) staged a hunger strike, calling on voters to reject government candidates with Chinese ancestry. He also went on to make a public display of burning the fliers of Chinese Filipino candidates at the Binondo Plaza three years later.

At around the same period as Ducat’s hunger strike, Adolfo Abadeza led the Laban Ako Sa Paghahari Ng Intsik Sa Pilipinas (LASPIP) Movement, and penned a number of works where he blamed Chinese Filipinos for Philippine poverty or claimed that the Chinese were colluding with the Spaniards to oppress Filipinos.

The sentiment seeps into modern day Philippines. An example can be found in the late F. Sionil Jose’s 2019 Philstar opinion article titled “Can we Still Trust America?” In it, the artist implied that the Philippines ought to confiscate the properties of Tsinoys and have them expelled.