Chinese Indonesians or Indonesian Chinese are Indonesians of Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – descent, who emigrated to Indonesia or the former Dutch East Indies colony both directly and through Maritime Southeast Asia. The population grew rapidly during the colonial period when workers were contracted from their home provinces in southern China. Indonesia's 2010 census reported more than 8.8 million self-identified ethnic Chinese citizens, corresponding to 3.7 percent of the country's population.
Under the Dutch ethnic classification policy, Chinese Indonesians were considered "foreign orientals"; as such, they struggled to enter the colonial and national sociopolitical scene, despite successes in their economic endeavors. Evidence of discrimination against Chinese Indonesians can be found throughout the history of Indonesia, although more recent government policies have attempted to redress this. Resentment of ethnic Chinese economic aptitude grew in the 1950s as native Indonesian merchants felt they could not remain competitive. In some cases, government action only propagated the stereotype that conglomerates owned by the ethnic Chinese were corrupt. Although economic collapse from the 1997 Asian financial crisis severely disrupted their business activities, reform of government policy and legislation removed a number of political and social restrictions on Chinese Indonesians.