Honestly, I travelled to some countries outside of Asia and I noticed that a lot of dumb kids / uneducated kids are prone to call an Asian individual “chinese",
Thanks to American media for popularizing Asian=Chinese worldwide, most people now think that Asia=China, when it is clear that Asia is not just China.
It really seems like Chinese race has overshadowed other Asians such as Filipinos, The Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Singaporeans and Malaysians etc.