[yorwba]

I don't think a common national identity is a big factor. From what I've read about economic development during China's reform-and-opening-up period, private investment from overseas usually piggy-backed on existing trust networks between family and friends. E.g. a Taiwanese investor would support his second cousin's business in Xiamen right across the strait, not some random stranger whose trustworthiness is completely unknown.

So the Indian diaspora split into dozens of smaller groups could provide the same level of support as a hypothetical unified diaspora, each group contributing to their ancestral region's development, just like the Chinese diaspora.

[accurrent]

Yes, taiwan, hong kong and singapore have played a major role in China's development. And yes, trust networks are important. One thing to note is that despjte the divergence of the diaspora culturally linguistically mandarin is commonly spoken among educated classes. Ive observed similar behaviour among tamilians overseas where an enterprising cousin builds their start up around their home village in tamil nadu. However, I think this is where the issue of class comes in. Annecdoteally, a lot of the indian diaspora come from already wealthy backgrounds which do not see the need to help each other.