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PRESERVING MONGOLIAN SOVEREIGNTY AND CULTURE
MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2017
The sovereignty of Mongolia is under siege.
The People’s Republic China (PRC) regards Mongolia as its “Ukraine” i , ii . Covertly the PRC has
ambitions not simply to make Mongolia a client or puppet state, as it was under Soviet domination,
but to integrate it with the PRC through a “voluntary” referendum, just as the Russians engineered
the assimilation of Crimea in 2014.
This was Mao Tse-tung’s prophecy and intent once China could establish parity or surpass Soviet
military and economic might. iii
As the world’s attention is focused on China’s South China Sea claims, an asymmetrical war is also
being conducted by the PRC to achieve Mongolian assimilation. Russian influence is being
marginalized, as are Mongolia’s ‘3 rd Neighbor’ partners such as Japan, South Korea, Germany, and
the US iv . China’s penetration and Sinification of Mongolia’s natural resources, financial system,
businesses, infrastructure, media, social media, culture, religion, security, electoral system, and
political body are each battle fronts in a multi-pronged asymmetrical campaign to isolate and then
assimilate Mongolia v .
Preserving Mongolian sovereignty demands a global awareness of the PRC’s covert intent. An
education campaign is needed both within Mongolia and globally to counter a) the PRC’s revisionist
historical justification for claiming Mongolia as their Crimea vi and b) the PRC’s effort to isolate
Mongolia and control all aspects of Mongolia’s economy, resources, politics, and culture.
Without a counter-campaign Mongolia will in a decade’s time be assimilate and Sinicized like Inner
Mongolia and Manchuria vii . Mongolians will become strangers in their own land.
China’s assimilation of Mongolia will not only be a tragedy for the Mongolian people and the hope
for Central Asian democracy, but a threat to the balance of power in Eurasia.
i In negotiations in 1956 between the Soviets and the PRC, the Soviet negotiator, Sergo Mikoyan, and CCP
Politburo member Liu Shaoqi and Premier Zhou Enlai, the Chinese hoped to connect the granting of Mongolia
independence with the question of Stalin’s “mistakes.” The Chinese requested the Soviets cancel Mongolia
independence in the wake of Khrushchev’s condemnation of Stalin’s personality cult. Liu Shaoqi drew a
parallel between Mongolia and Ukraine. He declared that Mongolia was China’s “Ukraine”. Source: “New
Documents on Mongolia and the Cold War” by Sergey Radchenko, Wilson Center Cold War International History
Project Bulletin, Issue 16, page 343 and Document 1,
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHPBulletin16_p4_1.pdf.
ii In 26 February 1989 Deng Xiaoping in a revealing complaint to President Bush showed enduring Chinese
views on Mongolia in regard to how Stalin had stolen or severed Mongolia from China. “Memorandum of
Conversation between George H. W. Bush and Chairman Deng Xiaoping in Beijing”, Wilson Center, February
26, 1989,
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116507.pdf?v=9e009d7beac46b3b33fcaafd3bcd08f5.
iii On 2 September 1964 during Mao’s talk with the Japanese group of socialists, Mao announced that much of
Siberia and Far East once belonged to China: “About a hundred years ago the area of to the east of Baikal
become the territory of Russia and from then on Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Kamchatka and other points are
the territory of the Soviet Union. We have not yet requested settling this account!” The publisher of the
article writes that Mao makes this claim based on “the fact that many hundreds of years ago Chinese troops
came to these areas and that once the Chinese Emperor collected tribute from the local people. Sournce: “In
connection with Mao Tse-tung’s talk with a group of Japanese socialists”, Novosti Press Agency Publishing
House, 2 September 1964, page 9 and 20,
https://ia801207.us.archive.org/0/items/MaosTalkWithJapaneseSocialists/Maos%20Talk%20with%20Japa
nese%20Socialists.pdf.
iv “Battered Mongolia faces make-or-break moment” by Ken Koyanagi, Financial Times, 5 February 2017,
https://www.ft.com/content/36b059b4-ea10-11e6-893c-082c54a7f539.
v “China-Mongolia Relations: Challenges and Opportunities” by Zolzaya Erdenebileg, China Briefing, 6 January
2017, http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2017/01/06/china-mongolia-relations.html.
vi Throughout history, Han Chinese have only controlled Mongolia for less than 18 months and that military
effort was, ironically, financed by the Imperial Japanese Army.
vii “Inner Mongolia has become China’s model of assimilation” by Hohhot and West Ujimqin, The Economist, 1
June 2017, http://www.economist.com/news/china/21722853-chinese-mongolians-are-still-asserting-theiridentity-inner-mongolia-has-become-chinas-model.