The following is a statement made by SMHRIC Director Enghebatu Togochog at "Will China's Colonies Celebrate Independence Day Soon?" Webinar hosted by Center for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on Ausut 13, 2022:

Good evening, good afternoon and good morning!

First of all, thank you, Mr. Vijay Kranti and your colleagues from Center for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement and friends from Tibetan Youth Congress, for organizing this special Webinar, and inviting me to speak on China’s colonial occupation of Southern Mongolia.

As we all know historical China is no larger than 1/5 of the territories of today’s People’s Republic of China, and throughout its long history, China was mostly confined to her traditional Chinese heart-land, known as “Zhong Yuan” from which the very idea of “Middle-Kingdom” was originated. The Chinese thought and are still thinking that they are the center of the world, and all other nations and peoples are barbarians and their territories should be colonized and population Sinocized.

If you look at Chinese history books and literatures, all nomadic peoples in the north like Mongolians are called “Bei Di” or “Northern Beasts”, all peoples in the west including Uyghurs and Tibetans are called “Xi Rong”  meaning “Western Savages”, peoples and nations in the South are called “Nan Man” which means “Southern Barbarians”, and the countries in the east such as Japan and Korea are called “Dong Yi” meaning “Eastern Aliens”. This Sino-centric mentality has a deep root in China’s colonial expansion and global hegemony.

When it comes to the north, the Chinese have been particularly hostile towards the Mongolians throughout the entire history of China.

The Great Wall is the greatest testimony to China’s hostility toward the Mongolians. Scholars including many western historians simply accepted the Chinese version of explanation as to why the Great Wall was built, rebuilt and fortified during every Chinese dynastic cycle, simply accepting the Chinese narrative of “fending off the barbarian attacks from the north”.

From the perspectives of the Mongolians and other nomadic people, the Great Wall is the earliest evidence of institutionalized and state sanctioned racial segregation and closed-mindedness in human history. It is a stubborn rejection of equal footing of nations, peoples, cultures and civilizations. It is a symbol of foolish arrogance and yet an indication of lack of self-confidence. This Great-Wall mentality is still the dominant state of mind of the Chinese state even today to deal with foreign affairs and foreign nations.

On the other hand, the Great Wall can serve as the cleanest and clearest boundary between Mongolian nation and China. South of the Great Wall is China and North of the Great Wall is undisputable territory of Mongolian Nation throughout the history. There is no other two neighboring nations on our planet that have their territorial boundary as clear as China and Mongolia.

Yet, the People’s Republic of China not only crossed this historical boundary to invade and colonize Southern Mongolia, but also claiming that the Mongolians are and a member of Chinese Nationality or so-called “zhong hua min zu” since antiquity.

The history of how my nation Southern Mongolia was turned into a Chinese colony and reduced to China’s first occupied nation is a textbook example of how modern imperialism and colonialism can work hand in hand to destroy a nation, crumble its economy and wipe out its culture.

While the Communist China’s imperialism came to Southern Mongolia in the name of “liberation”, her colonialism presented itself in Southern Mongolia in the euphemism of “development”. Since China’s imperialistic nature including military expansion, territorial annexation and political control has relatively been well-documented from the experience of Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia, I would like to touch upon China’s colonialism to provide an early warning to those nations that are already targeted by China’s neocolonial projects such as Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The most effective colonial strategy that China has applied in Southern Mongolia can roughly be summarized in these four major categories: economic “development”, population transfer, gradual Sinicization and resource extraction.

1.     Economic “Development”

The biggest and even fatal mistake a nation that has no previous experience of a close contact with China can make is to take what China says at its face value. China would never say to destroy your national economy and make you a beggar on your own land. Instead she would say to “help” you to “develop” your economy to “mutually benefit” and to “prosper together”. She can even come up with an unusually affectionate rhetoric such as establishing “twin city” or “sister city” relationship with your towns and cities, and offering kinship affection to become your “big brother” to help you “little brother”. In the past 70 years, China cultivated the Southern Mongolian grassland, and called it “help boosting rural economy”, and “assist the Mongolian little brother to adopt an advanced way of life” which certainly refers to the big brother’s farming way of life. When the thin top soil of Mongolian plateau is destroyed by the big brother’s iron plough, now the big brother blames the little brother’s “backward nomadic way of life” for the environmental degradation. Thanks to these series of “help”, “assistance” and “development”, the Southern Mongolian national economy has completely collapsed, fragile natural environment has totally been destroyed and pastoralist economy has seized to exist.

2.     Population Transfer

Influxes of population transfer from China proper to Southern Mongolia played a crucial role in destroying the nationhood of Southern Mongolia. The early waves of population transfer took place in a more natural way of immigration, sending refugees, fleeing from war, natural disaster, famine, and poverty. Most of the refugees were poor peasants from the neighboring Chinese provinces. The Mongolians provided them with food, shelter, livestock and land to feed their families. Within few decades, they quickly multiplied and pushed the Mongolians out of their land. In fact, during the massive genocide in the 1960s and 1970s, these peasants became the pioneers of torturing and slaughtering the Mongolians en masse. The later waves of population transfer took place in a more planned manner with strong government backing, such as “production and construction corps”, “banished intellectuals”. The latest form of population transfer has taken place in the name of “Western Development”, “urbanization”, “inviting investors” and “recovering ecosystem”. As a result of these nonstop Chinese migration, the population ratio of 5 Mongolians to 1 Chinese before the annexation has been reversed to 1 Mongolian to 5 Chinese today. Strikingly similar patterns are seen in the Belt and Road Initiative countries where China refuses to hire from native populations but brings in Chinese workers to create their own colony.

3.     Gradual Sinicization

As the Chinese population grows exponentially in the new colony, the Government of China would increasingly be confident in speeding up the Sinicization process of the indigenous people. One of the key steps the Government of China has taken to Sinicize the Mongolians in Southern Mongolia was to destroy the language and carry out a wholesale cultural genocide. During the massive genocide campaign in the 1960s and 1970s, all Mongolian schools were banned, and after the genocide, some Mongolians schools were restored but with very limited scales. Again staring early 2000, majority of the rural Mongolian schools were either removed or converted to Chinese ones under the “ecological migration” and “urbanization” policies. According to some statistics, the number of students taught in Mongolian has been reduced by 80% since the 1980s. So, today what we are left out with is the remaining 20% of what we had in the 1980s. Starting September 2020, the Central Government of China started implementing a new round, likely the last round, of cultural genocide, which is to completely replace Mongolian with Chinese as language of instruction in all Mongolian schools across Southern Mongolia in the name of “second generation bilingual education” as part of the so-called “Second Generation Ethnic Policy”. The latest developments testify to the fact that China’s true intention is not only to eradicate the Mongolian language but also to completely wipe out the Mongolian culture and identity to turn Southern Mongolia into a worry-free homogenous Chinese society.

4.     Resource Extraction

In 2009, the Government of China announced that Southern Mongolia had become “China’s Energy Base”. This gave a green-light to all Chinese extractive industries to come to Southern Mongolia to open up mines with no regards to the survival of indigenous Mongolian communities. From state-run mining giants to private and ninja miners, thousands of mining companies poured to Southern Mongolia. Local Mongolian herders have been forced to leave their land to give way to these miners. Lacking the necessary skills to survive in Chinese sedentary and urban societies, many displaced herders became jobless, homeless, and landless on their own land. Another devastating effect of these resource plundering is the total destruction of environment. Once beautiful Mongolian grassland has completely been destroyed. Vast grazing lands turned into mining pits. Rivers and lakes dried up. Underground water has been depleted. Toxic wastes are threatening not only the wellbeing of wild life and livestock but also the public health of the local Mongolian communities.

As China becomes an economic super power thanks to the natural resources plundered from Southern Mongolia and other occupied nations and cheap labor exploited from the vast domestic population of 1.5 billion, her global ambition certainly is growing rapidly. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of many indicators of China’s global hegemony and neocolonial appetite. Any nation, as sovereign and independent as it maybe, must take extra precautions when receiving China’s gift of “help” and “friendship” if it does not wish to become a colony and ultimately a province of China.

Thank you!

Enghebatu Togochog

Director

Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC)