{"id":2969,"date":"2025-11-12T08:34:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2969"},"modified":"2025-11-12T08:34:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:34:57","slug":"a-brief-history-of-the-china-mongolia-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2969","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of the China-Mongolia Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<p>Welcome to\u00a0<em>Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s China Brief.<\/p>\n<p>The highlights this week: We take a look at the increasingly strained history of ethnic ties between <strong>China and Mongolia<\/strong>, <strong>Japan\u2019s new prime minister<\/strong> makes clear her stance on Taiwan, and China shines at the annual<strong> U.N. climate conference<\/strong>.<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-unit-signup--shortcode-fallback\">\n<h2 class=\"dek-heading\">\n                <\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/category\/china-brief\/\">Sign up<\/a>  to receive China Brief in your inbox every Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<form data-shortcode-newsletter=\"china_brief\" class=\"newsletter-unit-signup newsletter-unit-signup--shortcode email-capture--step-1 newsletter-unit-signup--shortcode-china_brief\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-china_brief newsletter-shortcode-china_brief\">\n<div class=\"show-on-email-capture--signed-up hide-from-newsletter-subscriber newsletter-unit-signup--shortcode--container\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-unit newsletter-row\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-china_brief\">\n<h2 class=\"dek-heading\">Sign up to receive China Brief in your inbox every Tuesday.<\/h2>\n<p>\n                        <button class=\"button\">Sign Up<\/button>\n                    <\/p>\n<div class=\"grid--flex newsletter-china_brief newsletter-signup-container\" role=\"group\" aria-label=\"China Brief sign up form\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"buttons\">\n<div class=\"hide-from-newsletter-subscriber privacy-policy-container\">\n<div class=\"privacy-policy-acknowledge\">\n<p><small>By submitting your email, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/privacy\/\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/termsofuse\/\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Use<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.<\/small><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\n    <label for=\"email-china_brief\">Enter your email<\/label><br \/>\n    <input type=\"email\" name=\"email\" class=\"hide-from-reg hide-from-sub\" id=\"email-china_brief\" aria-required=\"true\" required=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <button class=\"button button--signup \" data-newsletter-id=\"china_brief\" data-sourceid=\"In-article unit\" type=\"submit\"><br \/>\n      <span class=\"sign-up-text\">Sign Up<\/span><br \/>\n      <span class=\"loading-text\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button>\n  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<hr\/>\n<h3>A Brief History of China-Mongolia Relations<\/h3>\n<p>China\u2019s northern neighbor Mongolia is facing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrons.com\/news\/mongolia-s-constitutional-court-rules-against-pm-s-removal-537fca3b?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqcuaqbIs3m9zlE1ghwvFjvxwg3MaDgmtkWe5SsmiFT1G5dfu5Une7jW5nudluA%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69085b15&amp;gaa_sig=8H6f4MDGjNSlZlqLjuGHiH0aRYOKBh5VcIj7-ZeRZeepYbOqPbqW5RTwQZ61iAcCdYcfM7TPrjTXifCz2aMPmQ%3D%3D\">constitutional crisis<\/a> after its Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/mongolias-top-court-rules-parliament-vote-ousting-prime-minister-is-2025-10-22\/\">ruled<\/a> last month that the parliament\u2019s mid-October no-confidence vote against the prime minister was improperly conducted\u2014worsening the ongoing clash between parliament and the country\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>But the turmoil won\u2019t affect most ethnic Mongols, who face an entirely different set of political problems. That is because around 6.3 million Mongols live in China, mostly in the region of Inner Mongolia. That\u2019s almost twice the 3.5 million people living in the country of Mongolia (or as it was once called, Outer Mongolia).<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s Mongol population also far outnumbers that of ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks. So, why are there so many Mongols in China? The real question is why there aren\u2019t more.<\/p>\n<p>Inner and Outer Mongolia were regional designations created under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Maps of <a href=\"https:\/\/qingmaps.org\/\">Qing territory<\/a> show that, unlike those of earlier empires, its borders and claims roughly correspond to present-day China, except for Outer Mongolia and Siberia, which were gradually carved off by Russia.<\/p>\n<p>The Qing rulers\u2014who were Manchu, a northern people ethnically related to the Mongols\u2014sought to preserve Mongolia\u2019s ecological and cultural integrity, initially prohibiting Han Chinese from settling there. However, by the 19th century, overpopulation and over-farming in the south drove Han migrants north. The collapse of Qing power after the 1850 Taiping Rebellion dealt a final blow, resulting in a surge of Han settlers arriving in Inner Mongolia.<\/p>\n<p>The new settlers purchased land from Mongol nobles, undermining the traditional pastoral rights of ordinary Mongols and fueling decades of violent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/23615320\">ethnic conflict<\/a>. Resistance leaders such as <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=J4L-_cjmSqoC&amp;pg=PA493#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">Dambijantsan<\/a> waged long campaigns against Qing rule, but the demographic and economic numbers were against them.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Outer Mongolia remained largely untouched. When the Qing dynasty finally fell in 1911, Outer Mongolia declared independence as Mongolia under the Bogd Khan, the local equivalent of the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese forces invaded Mongolia in 1919 but were driven out by the White Russian warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. (Hey, somebody <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/02\/22\/books\/review\/Goodwin-t.html\">wrote a book<\/a> about him!) The fear that the country would turn into a center of resistance prompted the Bolsheviks to invade in 1921, which eventually made Mongolia the first Soviet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/mongolia-soviet-era-photos-communism-socialism-democracy\/33155566.html\">satellite state<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Paradoxically, 70 years of Soviet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercatornet.com\/lessons-from-mongolias-forgotten-genocide\">oppression<\/a> helped preserve Mongolia\u2019s freedom in the long run. Even as the People\u2019s Republic of China invaded Xinjiang and Tibet and took control of Inner Mongolia, it left Mongolia\u2014protected by its Soviet patrons\u2014untouched. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Mongolia emerged as a democratic state, and it has remained one of stronger ones in Central Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Today, ethnic and political relations between Mongolia and China are complex. Some Chinese nationalists still harbor revanchist sentiments about Mongolia; within Mongolia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2010\/aug\/02\/mongolia-far-right\">anti-Chinese racism<\/a> is common.<\/p>\n<p>Within China\u2019s borders, Mongol-Han relations have been relatively stable compared to Han relationships with Tibetans and Uyghurs. That is partly because Beijing has generally employed less oppressive policies in Inner Mongolia, where local communists were critical in helping the People\u2019s Republic establish power. (During the Cultural Revolution, China did conduct a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socanth.cam.ac.uk\/news\/first-depth-analysis-published-cultural-revolution-inner-mongolia\">brutal pogrom<\/a> in Inner Mongolia.)<\/p>\n<p>But there is also less widespread prejudice against Mongols compared to Tibetans or Uyghurs because Mongols have generally been seen as a so-called <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/1899397\/inner-mongolians-in-china-rise-up-against-language-suppression\">model minority<\/a>. Mongol-Han marriages are common, and many people in China have mixed ancestry. There have even been some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2012\/9\/25\/wang-lijun-fall-of-the-iron-man\">high-ranking<\/a> Mongol officials in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).<\/p>\n<p>Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, however, that once-secure status has become increasingly precarious. China has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2021\/01\/28\/china-signals-roll-back-minority-languages\">reversed<\/a> long-standing policies that allowed ethnic minority children to be educated in their own language, forcing Mongol children into Chinese language-only education. That prompted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/sep\/01\/inner-mongolia-protests-china-mandarin-schools-language\">huge protests<\/a> in Inner Mongolia in 2020, which were met with wider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation\/story\/2020-09-23\/inner-mongolia-china-model-minority-crackdown\">cultural<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/international\/world\/a-defeat-for-genghis-khan-chinas-mongolian-minority-facing-increased-pressure-to-assimilate-a-6ddea2f2-edf8-433f-84d9-87acad280a2d\">religious<\/a> crackdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the CCP\u2019s adoption of the term \u201cnorthern frontier culture\u201d is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.org.au\/northern-frontier-culture-how-china-is-erasing-mongolia-from-mongolian-culture\/#:~:text=The%20adoption%20of%20the%20term,regions%20like%20Tibet%20and%20Xinjiang.\">widely seen <\/a>by Mongols as an attempt to erase their culture and identity. Mongol officials have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prcleader.org\/post\/the-not-so-model-minority-xi-jinping-s-mongolian-crackdown\">targeted<\/a> in recent CCP purges, and Inner Mongolian institutions\u2014including newspapers, publishing houses, temples, and universities\u2014are dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.equator.org\/articles\/the-xi-jinping-school-of-journalism?\">tough new political regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mongolians across the border are watching this shift with growing concern. Though the Mongolian government has generally avoided direct confrontation with Beijing, it has quietly sought <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/265513\/us_army_advisors_strengthen_partnership_with_mongolia\">U.S. backing<\/a> to balance against China and Russia.<\/p>\n<p>However, as Mongolia\u2019s chaotic political landscape evolves\u2014and as troubling stories emerge from Mongols in China\u2014it\u2019s possible that anti-Chinese populism could become a more powerful political force.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h3>What We\u2019re Following<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Japan-China relations.<\/strong> Japan\u2019s new prime minister, nationalist <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/10\/21\/japan-elections-prime-minister-conservative-takaichi\/\">Sanae Takaichi<\/a>, has wasted no time in steering her country\u2019s relationship with China onto the rocks. In parliamentary remarks delivered earlier this month, Takaichi said that an attack on Taiwan could be considered an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/11\/japan-china-row-takaichi-taiwan-conflict-military-deployment\">existential risk<\/a> for Japan that would justify a military deployment.<\/p>\n<p>Though Japan has historically maintained a strong relationship with Taiwan, a former colony, it\u2019s unusual for a Japanese leader to put its stance in such explicit terms.<\/p>\n<p>The remarks of course <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/japan-china-taiwan-emergency-takaichi-0cefc2b4e4f1cda16a4c8bfef033be2d\">angered Beijing<\/a>, and China\u2019s consul-general in Osaka, Japan, enflamed matters further when he seemingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/16147746\">threatened Takaichi<\/a> on social media. The envoy\u2019s post\u2014a callback to the days of China\u2019s so-called \u201cwolf warrior\u201d diplomacy\u2014has since been deleted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hong Kong voyeurism.<\/strong> Hong Kong is facing a <a href=\"https:\/\/theinitium.com\/20251104-hong-kong-digital-sexual-violence\/\">crisis<\/a> of sexual crimes, including online voyeurism, deep-fake pornography, and stalking. The government is <a href=\"https:\/\/hongkongfp.com\/2025\/05\/08\/hong-kong-mulls-use-of-ai-to-detect-suspected-acts-of-voyeurism-security-chief-says\/\">considering new laws<\/a> to address the issues, but it\u2019s a politically sensitive matter: Outrage surged this year over the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jul\/31\/anger-china-reports-online-groups-sharing-explicit-photos-women-telegram-without-consent\">MaskPark<\/a>\u201d scandal, in which images of nude subjects\u2014taken without their consent\u2014were shared in online groups.<\/p>\n<p>Women in Hong Kong are looking to South Korea, where <a href=\"https:\/\/hulr.org\/spring-2023\/taztieymxrvayt5rwn38g67f18mryz\">hidden cameras<\/a> have been a problem for years, for ideas about how to combat voyeurism.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly from a government that is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/10\/25\/1208391460\/china-suppresses-feminist-lgbtq-groups-outside-china-they-seek-to-rebuild\">hostile toward feminism<\/a>, discussion of the MaskPark scandal is <a href=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2025\/08\/maskpark-cyber-abuse-scandal-censored-women-say-silence-will-only-make-it-worse\/\">often censored<\/a> on the mainland. But Hong Kong, despite the national security law introduced in 2020, is still a freer environment for these conversations.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h3>FP\u2019s Most Read This Week<\/h3>\n<hr\/>\n<h3>Tech and Business<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Climate conference.<\/strong> With the United States largely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/nov\/10\/cop30-trump-climate-crisis-brazil\">absent<\/a> from this year\u2019s United Nations climate conference, known as COP30, China is poised to dominate. U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is actively campaigning against efforts to fight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/trump-called-climate-change-a-con-job-at-the-united-nations-here-are-the-facts-and-context\">climate change<\/a>. It has also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/06\/climate\/trump-climate-international-bullying.html\">threatened poorer and smaller countries<\/a> that are economically dependent on the United States in an effort to block attempts to lower emissions.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, China curbed climate denialism within its borders years ago and is now far ahead in the <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/11\/11\/china-solar-exports-clean-energy-cop30\/\">green energy transition<\/a>. Other countries looking to ride that wave are jumping on the chance to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/10\/climate\/cop30-belem-climate-energy-technology-china.html\">acquire Chinese technology<\/a>. All of this makes China come across as the responsible power\u2014an image that stands in sharp contrast to the United States.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chip diplomacy.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/dutch-government-seize-control-china-owned-chipmaker-nexperia\/\">Concerned<\/a> that Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chip company based in the Netherlands, was leaking information to China, the Dutch government seized control of the company in September. In response, Beijing retaliated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0rp2514g4qo\">blocking the export<\/a> of critical automobile industry chips to Europe, panicking manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>With the mood now more positive following the Xi-Trump summit last month, China has lifted the chip controls and eased its broader rare-earths threats, not just those against the United States. Both Beijing and Washington have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-11-10\/us-formally-delays-affiliates-rule-for-one-year-in-us-china-pact?embedded-checkout=true\">delayed<\/a> or canceled trade threats, but China <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/trump-says-nvidias-blackwell-ai-chip-not-other-people-2025-11-03\/\">still hasn\u2019t convinced<\/a> the Trump administration to export Nvidia\u2019s most coveted advanced chips.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/11\/11\/china-mongolia-history-culture-ethnicity\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to\u00a0Foreign Policy\u2019s China Brief. The highlights this week: We take a look at the increasingly strained history of ethnic ties between China and Mongolia, Japan\u2019s new prime minister makes clear her stance on Taiwan, and China shines at the annual U.N. climate conference.\u00a0 Sign up to receive China Brief in your inbox every Tuesday. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politcical-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}