(TibetanReview.net, Sep04’24) – After a new insistence on using the Chinese term “Xizang” (western treasure) to refer to Tibet (and Tibet Autonomous Region) even in English-language media, party authorities in China are now calling for the phrase “northern frontier culture” rather than “Mongolian” for China’s Inner Mongolia region, said US-based journal Foreign Policy in its weekly China Brief email service Sep 3.
The linguistic change may signal another target in ongoing attempts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to crush minority cultures in (People’s Republic of) China, especially those in the border regions, the report said.
The report noted that until 1911, all of Mongolia was under the control of the Qing Empire, which also ruled China. Out of ecological and cultural concerns, the Qing’s Manchu rulers blocked Han Chinese settlement in Mongolia.
However, after the 1850-64 Taiping rebellion and the resulting sharp decline in Qing power, Han settlers flooded into Inner Mongolia. And the region continued to remain under Chinese control.
On the other hand, the present-day Mongolia became a Soviet satellite and later on an independent country.
The report noted that although clashes between Han Chinese and Mongols left tensions that lasted through the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, until recently, Inner Mongolia was seen as a model of relative peace and assimilation.
However, in the last four years, educational changes have targeted Mongolian language and culture, and protests in the region in 2020 were met with repression, the report noted.