China's Borderlands and Nationalities: Xinjiang (New Frontier) and Tibet

In his discussion of China's borderlands, Terrill focuses especially on two regions, Chinese Turkestan, or Xinjiang (New Frontier), a province conquered by the Manchu government in the 1700s, and Tibet, a tributary state to China since the 1400s and formally annexed by Communist China in 1949.  In light of the disintegration of the Soviet empire in the 1990s, Terrill argues about the unreasonable and anachronistic existence of the Chinese empire with these historically recent acquisitions that have very diverse ethnic and religious identities from the rest of China.  A second argument Terrill makes against Chinese rule in these regions is the "imperial" high handedness the Chinese Communist government has toward them, not dissimilar to policies of the imperial government of the Manchu dynasty (1644-1911).

The comparison Terrill makes between China and the Soviet Union was helpful in the sense that both were empires with about the same number of nationalities (55 for the USSR and 56 for China).  Instead of overseas colonies, the territories the Russian empire acquired under successive tsars and tsarinas from Peter the Great (1600s) to Catherine the Great (1700s) in Europe and central Asia, were defined as colonies by Terrill.  Similarly, the territories acquired by the Manchu government in China since the 1600s, that marks 2/3 of Chinese territories today, including Manchuria, (Inner) Mongolia (as Outer Mongolia split and became a separate country in 1913), Xinjiang and Tibet, were not "authentic" parts of China in that they had different ethnicities, languages, and religions.  The rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union and the spin-off of the Soviet republics form a special contrast to the territorial integrity of the Chinese empire, making it glaringly "anachronistic" in Terrill's eyes, especially when these Chinese "colonies" are ruled with an "imperial" highhandedness of Chinese Communism.

Certainly one of the reasons why the Chinese "empire" has not disintegrated is the slow move toward democracy in China, or "socialism with Chinese characteristics," a term the Chinese Communist leaders use to justify Chinese economic reform and distinguish it from capitalist democracy.  Terrill emphasizes the authoritarian nature of the Chinese regime, rather than its Communist ideology, suggesting a continuity of the Communist regime with historical regimes in imperial China, in goals and practices regarding China's borderlands.  He argues that despite reforms in Xinjiang, or Tibet, since it came from an authoritarian regime from without, it will not make the Chinese government welcome in either place.

The discussion of these two steppe borderlands is part of Terrill's delineation of China's domestic and foreign policies, as policies toward both regions have international ramifications.  Here is a very simple summary of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Tibet: Historically the Tibetans were a tribal people who lived on the Chinese border, often clashing with the Chinese. Starting from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), marriage alliances between the imperial Chinese government and the Tibetans led to temporary peace between the two peoples.  In the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), established by Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, the Mongols tried to incorporate Tibetans into their Chinese empire.  After the Mongol Dynasty ended, Tibet was independent but remained a tributary state to China, relying on Chinese military protection and paying tribute (gifts, respect) to the Chinese emperors.

Tibetan Buddhism, or Lamaism, is a branch of Buddhism that focuses on the voluntary practice of rituals to reveal the energy that infuses the universe.  One of its characteristics is the rule by lamas, or teachers.  One of the titles is Dalai Lama, the human incarnation of the Buddha of compassion.  Another is the Panchen Lama, the reincarnation of the Buddha of Limitless Light.  Dalai Lamas were installed as rulers over Tibetan Buddhism by the Mongols.  The selection of the successors to the lamas is an esoteric process.

Chinese Communist highhanded rule was reflected not only in using the Chinese of the Han Nationality (over 90 percent of Chinese are Han) to rule over the Tibetans, but also replaced the Tibetan selected successor to the Panchen Lama with a Communist selected one in 1995.  Chinese interference in Tibet led Dalai Lama to organize an uprising in 1959 and after its failure, Dalai Lama fled to India where he has mostly been residing since.  as time goes on, however, Dalai Lama has changed from an advocate of Tibetan independence to an advocate of dialogue with the Chinese government and peaceful autonomy of Tibet under Chinese rule.

Xinjiang: Historically a region outside of China, with primarily Uigur and other Muslim populations that are ethnically, religiously, and linguistically linked to the Turkic people of central Asia.  Like Tibet, Xinjiang has been ruled by predominantly Han nationality Communists, with schools instructing in Mandarin Chinese (standard Han language).  In the past 20 years, Xinjiang independence movement has been fueled with a pan-Turkic movement directed and funded from Istanbul.

Both Tibet and Xinjiang pose great headaches to the Chinese Communist regime.  Tibet has become a focus of international attention, as an example of the "undemocracy" of the Chinese government.  Compared with Xinjiang, however, Tibet is a standalone region in that it cannot identify and merge with a neighboring country.  So Tibetan protests can be isolated by the Chinese government.  Xinjiang, on the other hand, is part of the international Islamic and pan-Turkic movement, and much tougher to deal with.  Thus in the Xinjiang case, the Chinese government resorts to international alliance with the US and Europe, under the guise of fighting international terrorism, to contain Xinjiang's alliance with the international Islamic movement.

Whatever the outcome, the problems with Tibet and Xinjiang, along with inner Mongolia and Taiwan, challenge the Chinese government to redefine its policies to these regions in order to create greater congruity between the policies and reality of these regions, just as the Chinese government needs to redefine its political goals and policies in the face of rapid social and economic changes in China today.