Investigating the extent of “internal colonialism,” or state penetration, of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang by the Nationalist government of China (1912 – 1949)

Investigating the extent of “internal colonialism,” or state penetration, of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang by the Nationalist government of China (1912 – 1949)

Chung Chien-peng 鐘健平

Professor

2018

CCS Grant Scholar

Field of Study：

No：

Date：2019/10/22

For half a century before the end of the Qing (清) dynasty, the revitalization of national strength and search for unity had already become the underlying theme of Chinese politics and governance. Persisting in this quest, a fundamental goal of the Chinese revolutions of 1911 and 1949 was to restore a China that was semi-colonized, warlord-ridden, socially unstable and torn by war against Japan and a civil war to its former greatness. Under these circumstances, as detailed in this paper, separatist attempts by regional authorities and ethnic minority (少数民族) groups were perceived by Chinese nationalists as an existential threat to the Chinese nation-state, especially if the involvement of foreign governments was suspected, or discovered. In response, the Republic of China (中華民國) authorities under the Zhongguo Kuomintang (中國國民黨) or Chinese Nationalist Party tried to device ways to extend central government rule over the resident ethnic minorities at the frontier, and at the same time, played against local warlords who took on the role of agents of Han-Chinese civilization and development in asserting their control and spreading their influence on the fringe communities.