I. The Historical Background of the Nationality Question In Inner Mongolia (up to 1947)

II: Inner Mongolia Under the China Communist Colonial System:

The early years 1947-1957

1957-1967

1967-1977: The Cultural Revolution

1977 to the Present

III: The Ethnic Opposition in Inner Mongolia

The Historical Background of the Nationality Question In Inner Mongolia (up to 1947)

The 3 million Mongols of Inner Mongolia found on the border of present-day China were a major part of Chinggis Khan's unified Mongolian State. For innumerable years they have lived and worked on their own native soil north of the great wall bordered to the north by the Gobi, eastward by the Great Khinggan mountains, and westward by the Ordos plateau. In the course of several hundred years of history and due to the historical transformations of the Mongols, especially from the period of the Mongols' loss of national independence in the 17th century and failing under the power of the Manchus, the present day Inner Mongolian identity has been created, with the beginning of distinction from the Khalkha Mongol (of present day Mongolia) by an administrative boundary. The main idea of the Manchu colonialist policy was divide and rule splitting the Mongols into separate groups. As a result the distinction between the lands north (Outer) and South (Inner) of the Gobi was exaggerated. In the 19th century, the term Inn

er Mongolia became established as a geographical term, a usage which has continued to the present. On the one hand it became an administrative term and on the other it refers above all to the various Mongolian groups residing in that area. One thing to emphasize is that the name "Inner Mongolia," "Inner Mongols," etc., has from the beginning to the present described just a geographic position or an administrative unit, it does not designate a nationality separate from the Mongols as a whole.

The Mongols of Inner Mongolia, like all the Mongols, had under the colonial rule of the Manchu empire a clear power of ethnic autonomy, as with the Tibetans who had a relatively broader scope of free action, under this system for 260 years up to the threshold of the 20th century. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the rule of the Manchu empire declined.

Moreover in 1912 the Chinese national liberation revolution overthrew the Manchu empire and brought a new chance for all the nationalities under the Manchu colonial rule Mongols. Tibetans, Chinese and others. This historical process is quite similar in both time and background to the empire of Austria-Hungary which broke apart after World War I allowing the colonized nations of Eastern Europe to liberate themselves and establish their independence. But in Asia the result was utterly different.

As the Manchu imperial government disintegrated, Outer Mongolia (the present day independent state of Mongolia) with the support and aid of the Mongols as a whole, achieved independence in 1912. It is important to note that the religious leader of Mongolia, the 8th Zhibdzandamba Khutugtu (a Tibetan) played an important role in this success. It shows that under colonial rule the Mongolian and Tibetan nationalities had not only religious and cultural connections but were also linked in politics and in the struggle for freedom. Up to this point the main problem of the Mongols in Inner Mongolia was, as true for the Mongols as a whole, a purely ethnic problem, that is, being under Manchu colonial rule. In 1912 after the disintegration of Manchu colonial rule, Outer Mongolia became independent, but the Chinese nationality, which had been under the Manchu rule just like the Mongols and Tibetans, having liberated itself turned around forcibly to establish its colonial domination over Mongolia and Tibet.

This colonial rule established by the Chinese government continued until a Chinese communist government was established in 1949, and the succeeding communist colonial regime has lasted from 1949 to the present. In the 80 years of history since then the Inner Mongolia nationality problem has gone on at all times up to the present, as it is reflected in varied forms and contexts with each new historical era. On one side establishing the colonial regime the Chinese government has its ends and means for applying the colonial policy's proposed forms and contents, and on the other it has carried on a real struggle with the native Mongols resident in Inner Mongolia who resist this policy. It is those acts of resistance by the Mongol people directed towards resistance to the colonialist aggression, extermination, assimilation, robbery, repression and oppression and towards protecting their own nationality's people, language, culture, religion, history, natural environment and resources and in the final analysis dire

cted toward defending their own nationality's interest and the salvation of their own nation from extinction -- it is those acts which have demonstrated clearly that the nationality conflict is still going on.

In 1912 the struggle in Inner Mongolia for national liberation intensified under the influence of Mongolia's independence and almost all of the 49 banners (banner is the traditional unit of local administration in Mongolia) declared their allegiance to the new Theocratic Mongolian state. Many armed uprisings broke out as a result of this, but they were defeated by China's superior force with many thousands of Mongols, down to ordinary citizens being persecuted in the ensuing repression. In these uprisings anything from a few score to tens of thousands of people were involved. The number of those killed in the 30 years of this colonial regime must be numbered in the hundreds of thousands, although I have not found any definite statistics on this subject. The Chinese government at this time began a very different colonial policy in Inner Mongolia from that pursued by the Manchu colonialists. Apart from the military pacification vast numbers of Chinese citizens were brought in to settle by plowing up the pastur

es into fields. Concurrently the Inner Mongolia administrative units were changed to Chinese `xian' (a Chinese rural administrative unit, often translated as "county" in English) and three special regions were carved out of the Inner Mongolian area. These three special regions broke the Inner Mongolian territory into isolated parts and separated the Mongolian land from any unified Inner Mongolian administration.

The Inner Mongolian people carried on a powerful struggle against this Chinese colonialist regime. From 1912 to 1947 almost 10 separate Mongol national governments were formed in Inner Mongolia, declaring either their independence or autonomy from China. Of these, the most powerful and influential was the autonomous government led by the Prince of Sonid, Demchugdongrub. This government stood for about 10 years and included a little more than half the territory of Inner Mongolia. This government exercised full administrative power and several times fought to defend itself from the Chinese government and the warlords, but was in the end defeated. Among the uprisings, I will just mention one. In the suppression of the uprising led by Gada Meiren in the eastern Kharchin area three to four thousand were killed. Such rebellions occurred virtually every year in Inner Mongolia and they involved anywhere from a few score to tens of thousands of people. The number of those common people who suffered in the war and pil

lage, and who were driven from their homes, sickened and died, or were wounded or crippled was uncountable. Looting of goods and livestock, the traditional economy of the Mongols was an everyday sight. Local uprisings occurred constantly and in the end, they would be crushed by the force of China's overwhelming power, and all the participants with their families, children, relatives and neighbors could be slaughtered. Aside from these armed struggles, petitions, audiences, demonstrations and rallies, meetings, duguilang circles (a kind of traditional organization), student and workers' strikes and other forms of non-violent struggle were used even more. In response the Chinese government used threats, forcible repression and deception to handle them. For 30 years, the Chinese government's colonial regime was mostly established by military force which in the end proved successful in crushing the people's struggle for liberation, so that a colonial regime could be established in Mongolia. This created the soci

al, political, economic, and demographic condition for that government's replacement, the Communist Chinese government to continue the colonial regime.

In 1945+, with the destruction of the Japanese Army in Asia, the combined Soviet-Mongolian Army liberated Mongolia from the Japanese colonialists, and conducted many surveys to determine how the Inner Mongolian banners felt about unification with Mongolia. In every area where such surveys were taken, the vast majority favored secession from China and unification with Mongolia. But the fate of Inner Mongolia was influenced strongly by the international Communist powers; Stalin laying the groundwork for the victory of the Chinese Communist Armies, decided that Inner Mongolia would not unify with Mongolia.

The factor of Communist ideology exercised its influence on the Inner Mongolian national question, with a regime of Communist dictatorship being laid over the original colonial regime established by the Chinese authorities in Inner Mongolia. Thus the Communist-colonial dictatorship which formed the next stage was established by the communist rulers who had seized power In China.

In 1945+ the national Communist party of Inner Mongolia (the People's Revolutionary Party of Inner Mongolia) established a government in the eastern part of the region. A delegation of its leaders went to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to secure the unification of their party with the Mongolian Communists, secession from China, and eventually unification of Inner Mongolia with Mongolia. The Mongolian authorities, taken in the Stalinist policies, reflected these requests of the Inner Mongolian government, asked the national Communist party to dissolve itself and merge with the Chinese Communist Party.

Thus in 1946 when the Chinese Communist Party sent Ulanfu to Inner Mongolia, with full military and political backing, he was able to force the dissolution of this national Communist Party in eastern Inner Mongolia, through military force, intimidation, and deception. In May, 1947 an "Autonomous Government of Inner Mongolia" 'was formed under the direct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. This was the ancestor of today's "Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region" and allegedly "autonomous" communist colonial system organized by ideologically motivated force. In its whole history this colonial regime established by Chinese authorities and government in Inner Mongolia met with the constant vigorous opposition of the Mongol people in Inner Mongolia. Even the national communists of Inner Mongolia who had merged with the Chinese communists, clearly did not wish to become a Chinese colony. In the tangled historical conditions of the time, the Inner Mongolian nationality question always ended up occupying the first

rank.

Inner Mongolia Under the China Communist Colonial System: The early years 1947-1957

In the early years of the Communist Party's rule in Inner Mongolia, the area was used as a major strategic base area for the defeat of the Kuomingtang government and party. Many Chinese troops were stationed in Inner Mongolia. They suppressed the ethnic opposition, forcibly drafted people into the army, requisitioned livestock and property for military uses, and carried out land reclamation to provide provisions for the army. This put the Mongol resistance at a substantial disadvantage and was an orchestrated weakening of the ethnic resistance struggle. In the first 2 years of the communist regime in Inner Mongolia 1947-1948, almost 30,000 were killed.

In 1949 the CCP took power over all of China and acquired the ability to pursue a more systematic policy on the nationality question and colonization. As a consequence it embarked on a complete liquidation of the ethnic resistance in Inner Mongolia.

In 1953 the communists liquidated basically all the opposition groups, and arrested, convicted. and executed or otherwise punished those who had participated in the ethnic resistance. In 1953 alone, according to incomplete statistics, 10,000 people were executed. Even more were convicted of being "war criminals", "counterrevolutionaries", "ethnic reactionaries", "reactionary herds owner / feudalists" or "spies" and given sentences of up to 30 years in prison. As an example my grandfather, Erdenisang, was convicted as a "war criminal" and "herd owner" sentenced to 20 years and died in prison in 1960.

After the troops of the previous ethnic governments were merged with the Chinese PLA they were sent to the Korean war, while lower level officers of the national communist government were sent to "thought - reform schools" in ethnic Chinese areas, and trained to think in the communist way. Movements to learn communist theory, Marxism, and Mao Zedong thought were organized everywhere. Likewise there were campaigns in every level of society to study and practice "communist nationality policy, " and the "Marxist policy of nationality autonomy." These campaigns have gone on uninterrupted for 40 years and all who opposed or doubted them have been punished.

From this time on the Chinese communist-colonial authorities began to widely propagate their own approved theory and

interpretation of the regime and forced it on the people. This theory was largely built on the Marxist idea of class conflict, in which there is no national or ethnic distinction among the oppressed proletariat, and the Chinese communist party liberates the proletarians of the non ethnic Chinese nationalities from feudal and herd-owner oppression. The party's nationality policy is detailed as a policy of local nationality autonomy but not autonomy for the nationality as a whole unit, and all ethnic nationalism is a type of feudal reactionary views. Thus the "Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region" has as far as its administrative autonomy goes, the status of a local administrative unit, like the other provinces of China. The Chinese authorities made Inner Mongolia an example of this policy and practiced a similar policy in Tibet, Xinjiang, Guangxi, and other ethnic areas and there too encountered strong opposition. One example is after the armed invasion and occupation of Tibet, the party tried to implement the "

autonomy" policy there and in 1959 the Tibetan people undertook an armed uprising.

Simultaneously great changes were made in the Inner Mongolian administrative units. Areas which under the Kuomingtang had been divided into provinces and Chinese `xian', and were already totally filled with Chinese farmers, were added to Inner Mongolia which created a major change in their demographic proportions. With the slogan of "helping to develop ethnic areas" large numbers of Chinese people were moved into Mongolia. A long term policy of "eliminating the population through assimilation" was begun as the Mongols were pushed back 100-200 miles north from the Great Wall, `xian' or counties were established deep in territory where Mongols live, and Chinese brought in to settle there.

In 1947, according to incomplete data drawn from scattered official publications (the full numbers are secret), the area of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous government, not including Suiyuan province, had 1,200,000 Mongols and 800,000 Chinese.

After administrative changes and the immigration of large numbers of Chinese, by 1956 when the final administrative form of Inner Mongolian territory was, after about 10 separate changes, ratified, the number of Chinese had increased several times.

These administrative changes and the succeeding ones made for the next 30 years were without any consideration for the interests or desires of the real masters of the land, the native residents, the Mongol people.

At the same time a restrictive policy was pursued about Buddhist religion and many monks were forced to become laymen. Temples and monasteries were closed, the people were forced into atheism, religion suffered discrimination as "reactionary ideology" or a "feudal remnant" and the lamas were driven from the monasteries.

Economically the livestock of the herd-owners was expropriated and requisitioned as state property, and in some farming areas the landlords were expropriated. The big herd-owners, wealthy herdsmen and landlords were punished as

"counter-revolutionaries" or "exploiting classes." Later as collectivization was applied in a coordinated movement, the livestock, other property, and farmers' land were all taken by the collectives changing property relations, and forcing a politicization of the methods and organization of the Mongols' traditional lifestyle.

Ethnic culture and customs were eliminated. They were called "backward and feudal" and the party called for a "proletarian culture." Likewise Mongolian language was called backward and a movement to learn Chinese was developed. The oppressive colonial policies implemented by the Chinese authorities in Inner Mongolia were also implemented by the Chinese authorities in other non-ethnic Chinese areas, with some minor changes. Moreover, they created new conflicts between the various non-Chinese nationalities. For example ethnic Mongolian units of the Chinese PLA were used to suppress the Tibetan people's Uprising of 1959. Because many Mongol officers and soldiers resisted this, they were sentenced to enter special "study units."

This should be called a crude trick to sow dissension between Mongol and Tibetan peoples.

In these 10 years the Chinese rulers established a communist colonial regime and strengthened it. In distinction to the previous colonial regime established in Inner Mongolia by the Kuomingtang there was dual use of communist ideas, rules and methodsto gether with ethnic colonialism to establish a new style communist colonial regime.

Inner Mongolia Under the China Communist Colonial System: 1957-1967

Since Inner Mongolia under the Chinese Communist - colonial regime was included with the whole system of communist dictatorship all the political, ideological, social and economic changes and campaigns were all carried on in Inner Mongolia and were all picked up in accordance with the ethnic peculiarities.

In 1957 the "anti-rightist movement" arose in Chinese political life. In Inner Mongolia, the "rightists" were mostly the Mongol national intelligentsia who were persecuted in the thousands with the able "nationalists-rightists"; several thousand lost their lives.

At this time Inner Mongolian social life became even more ideologized. From 1960 the Chinese communist party's conflict with the Soviet Communist Party intensified, thus leading to a worsening of state and party relations between China and Mongolia.

This development was received most sensitively in Inner Mongolia. The Chinese authorities criticized Mongolians in Inner Mongolia, and even though they were neighbors, broke off Inner Mongolia's political, cultural, economic, and even kinship ties with Mongolia. Under the name of national defense ever growing numbers of Chinese units were shifted into Inner Mongolia.

As persecution of "revisionists" and Mongolian "spies" was orchestrated, and Inner Mongolia was termed the "front line of national defense against revisionism," the region was steadily cut off from all contact with the outside world.

As China's economic situation fell into a serious crisis, thousands of Chinese farmers racked by starvation were resettled in Inner Mongolia to claim more land, causing the herdsmen to lose more of their pastures. The communization campaign increased and private ownership of livestock became illegal. The herdsman's life became more difficult, and due to the shrinkage of pasture, herdsmen in some areas were forced to become farmers.

Religion and customs were steadily more closed down and the extermination of national culture was deepened.

A major event of this period was the exploitation of the Bayan- Oboo ore deposits to bring the Bait steel mill into use. At the time this was China's single largest steel plant and had great economic and military-political significance to the Chinese colonialists. It bred an interest in a yet more stable and deeper colonial regime in Inner Mongolia. The colonialists robbed Inner Mongolia of its resources and moved into a new stage of their activity. When these new developments in industry and technology were imported by the Chinese immigrants, they polluted the environment and the problem of the poisonous by-products of nuclear and military activities became more severe or arose for the first time. For example the rare-earth mines in Bayan-Oboo produce 97% of China's output which is all used in the production of nuclear weapons. Also based on the Baotou steel mill they began to establish the largest in China and probably only tank and other heavy weapons factories.

Likewise linked to this, Inner Mongolia was under the threat of war from the Soviet Union for 30 years, because Soviet nuclear weapons were pointed at this factory.

Inner Mongolia Under the China Communist Colonial System: 1967-1977: The Cultural Revolution

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution which began in 1966, Inner Mongolia experienced its worst period. The Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia was an act of genocide which was the most tragic and bitter ten years in the Mongols' history.

The fabricated "New People's Revolutionary Party of Inner Mongolia(PRPIM)", a national communist party in the east part of the region which was suppressed in 1946, had actually continued as a secret organization. This marked the beginning of a political campaign to wipe out the Mongols and basically, all Mongols encountered persecution. In 1969 this development reached its peak. The whole nationality was persecuted with hundreds of special criminal accusations like "Inner Mongolian Party member", "Nationalist", "Reactionary ethnic lama", "reactionary ethnic upper stratum element", "ethnic herd-lord", "spy for Mongolia", "reactionary Mongol warlord" etc. Influential people were arrested and jailed, interrogated, and inhumanely tortured and humiliated. To give a few examples, there was electrocution, putting human wastes in people's mouths, cutting out people's tongues, burning alive in fires, hanging by the thumbs, fathers and sons would be stripped tied together by the genitals with a wire and marched throug

h the streets to be publicly humiliated, women were raped, had their nipples cut off, people were killed by being pierced through the genitals with iron or wooden spikes, accused people would be stripped naked and forced to have intercourse with female corpses, Buddhist lamas would be made to urinate on Buddhist icons, men would be forced to have

intercourse with their daughters or daughter-in-laws. All of these and other utterly inhuman tortures, far beyond anything heard of in history or dreamed by the fascists. and practically unbelievable, were done. Even the Chinese government recognized this (after 1977 they appeared in quite a few Chinese official publications). Beatings were the most ordinary form of mistreatment and torture, numbering in the thousands. Since the prisons were full, classrooms, and even storage pits were used to hold people.

The terror embraced all Mongols from babies a few months old to old men and women over 80 and spared no gender, age or walk of life. As a result of these savage actions in the years 1968-69, 48,983 Mongols were killed (official Chinese figures) and 790,000 people were either maimed or of unsound mind (again official Chinese figures). In the fabricated PRPIM case alone 346,000 people were implicated (again official Chinese figures). In fact the numbers were far larger than these figures. Compared to the total number of Mongols which was 1,600,000 (official figures), the killed, maimed, and mentally incapacitated add up to 838,983 people which is more than half the population and more than the total number of adults. One of 31 people was killed or 1 of 15 adults was killed and the rest were maimed or mentally incapacitated. These are the lowest possible figures given according to Chinese official statistics. But it is not surprising that the real number of those killed, if calculated, would be shocking. It sho

uld be mentioned that the 50,000 or so killed Mongols were the members of the intelligentsia, the cream of the people. The slaughters and massacres of Inner Mongolia in the Cultural Revolution was totally different from that in other areas of China. In Inner Mongolia, under the Communist colonial dictatorship, there was a true genocide carried out by the Chinese rulers.

Likewise Mongol property was robbed so there was nothing left to live on. 95% of the temples of Inner Mongolia were

completely wiped out. Religion became illegal and the lamas killed or persecuted. The national language was termed "the language of beasts" "the feudal language" and the national script termed a "reactionary feudal script" "counter-revolutionary script" and officially prohibited. Mongol schools were closed. Mongol children were forced to go to Chinese schools to study with Chinese children. Mongolian language books were confiscated and destroyed and hatred and contempt for the Mongols was spread throughout the society. To mention only one example, Zhao Yumen, the commander of the Zherim District military region at a political meeting of his officers said "The situation with the enemies in Zherim district is very dangerous. The Mongols alone number 400,000." This means that in Zherim district all the 400,000 Mongols were considered the enemy.

Likewise at the end of 1969 the Chinese government declared a state of emergency in Inner Mongolia and maintained it for 2years.

This disaster for the Mongol nation cannot be measured only in the number of those killed or wounded, but also in the number of Mongol children and youths who were persecuted at the time or later for their ancestry. Many children were called "children of reactionary enemies" or "little counterrevolutionaries ," and were discriminated against in school and beaten up, which damaged their development and their study of their national language and culture. Thus they not only lost the chance to study their language and culture of their own nation, but it even hurt their ability to get a grade school education.

This persecution of a whole nationality, with the killing of 7% of the adults, directed towards the destruction of the intellectual stratum, culture and religion, language script and customs cannot be seen as anything other than the political crime of exterminating a whole nationality whether as a culture or as a body of people undertaken with the most savage primitive and inhuman methods. This terror lasted for 10 years. From 1969 on, the "rural reeducation of educated youth" campaign was practiced intensely in Inner Mongolia, with Chinese educated youth from China proper being resettled in Inner Mongolia. They were sent into herdsmen's houses. As a new form of the Colonial assimilation policy, likewise, many divisions of militarized citizens were brought into Inner Mongolia. This permanent army served as a yet more effective means to implement the colonialists' ethnic assimilation and extermination policy.

In this period the previous Chinese policy of forcing changes in the administrative units, and the resettlement of Chinese

immigrants was continued. In 1969 four of the eight aimags or districts then included in Inner Mongolia with other banners or counties were transferred to neighboring provinces. The four districts actually included 80% of the Mongol population of Inner Mongolia when these provinces had been administered in Chinese provinces for ten years they were then brought back into Inner Mongolia and yet more Chinese settlers were mixed into them.

Inner Mongolia Under the China Communist Colonial System: 1977 to the Present

In the first years after the end of the cultural revolution there was a simple "rectification" of persecutions in the cultural

revolution. All the responsibility for the genocide in Inner Mongolia was laid at the door of the "Gang of Four" and a

"rehabilitation" was organized to mollify the Mongol people. For example in this "rehabilitation" the families of those killed received 500 yuan which at the time equaled about US$200. One ox was worth about 250 yuan in China at that time, so we can draw the conclusion that one Mongol's life was worth about that of 2 oxen. For the crime of killing 50,000 and maiming 800,000, 600 lower level thugs were sentenced for periods less than ten years but no one of the leading figures in the cultural revolution was ever sentenced. With these measures "rehabilitation" was concluded.

This "rehabilitation" far from being accepted by the Mongols was seen as nothing other than a new ethnic insult.

From 1979 on, the new Chinese leaders began to implement economic reforms, renting out livestock to the herdsmen in

pastoral areas, and land to the farmers in farming areas, so that the colonial policy was to some extent changed.

In 1981 the colonial policy in Inner Mongolia of the Chinese authorities was specified as one of changing Inner Mongolia's backwardness. The main method of this change was to bring in a large number of Chinese settlers to increase the population, so that through economic policy they could easily implement their ethnic colonization policy. When the CCP's Central Committee came out with a secret document no.28 and began to implement in practice, a broad resistance struggle among the Mongols rose up. Inner Mongolia's Mongol students and youth boycotted their classes all over the region for 2 months, demonstrations of several thousand took to the streets. As a result the Chinese authorities delayed the planned immigration of the Chinese.

Despite this, a powerful ideological campaign about the nationality policy in Inner Mongolia was created, several leaders of the student movement were arrested. Likewise the Chinese "Law on Local Ethnic Autonomy" was hastily issued to ratify the colonialization of Inner Mongolia as part of a unified economic policy. At the beginning of the 1980s large oil fields and large coal mines were opened in the Shili-yin Gool area, with many thousands of Chinese workers, armed with modern technology and high finance brought into the region. In the same way railroads were being newly built. In another important development, the Chinese implemented their policy of forcing the Mongols to limit their population growth, not allowing them to have more than two children. For a nationality like the Mongols with few people, this created a real danger of demographic extinction.

Similarly, with the economic interests in the developed border areas, the nationality areas policy were raised even more

forcefully than before. In reality these economic measures brought not the slightest benefit to the real masters of the land, the native residents, the Mongols. Rather, after every leap in the economic indicators, after every increase in population, after every increase in the length of railway tracks or the area of a state farm, lay the bitter truth that the interests and desires of the Mongols, the ethnic population, civilization, and environment were crushed and ignored.

From 1987 to 1992 the Chinese power holders stifled the growing ethnic resistance. Fearing the influence of the Mongolian democratic movement the Chinese government has stepped up its repression and at the same tine is hastening the tempo of the complete assimilation and colonialization of Inner Mongolia's Mongols. For this purpose economic policies are being stepped up and demographic policies are being implemented jointly with them.

Also, the administrative units of Inner Mongolia were again changed. One of the large aimags (a Mongol term for district of province) of Inner Mongolia, Zhum Uda, was in 1984 entirely turned into a municipality called Chifeng. Now it is territorially the largest city in the world, with a territory about the size of Portugal.

Thus, in the 45+ years since Chinese communist-colonial dictatorship was established in Inner Mongolia, the native people of Inner Mongolia are on the verge of extinction. Massacres, punishments, deceptions, population resettlement and land reclamation, the extermination of historical traditions and religions, robbery and insults - the Chinese rulers used any and every policy, in implementing the most brutal ideologized communist-colonial regime. They did not even observe elementary morality and a sense of proportion to their crimes that colonialists in other countries have observed.

In these 45+ years that have killed at least 110,000 Mongols and maimed one million, if we compare the population, Inner Mongolia's ethnic proportions have changed dramatically since 1947. There are now 3 million Mongols or about twice the number in 1947. But the Chinese settlers number 19 million, more than 29 times the number in 1947.

The Chinese rulers have skillfully exploited the communist doctrine to practice ethnic colonialism. One trick they have to deceive people and distort history is to deny that Mongols, Tibetan, and Uygurs and other non-chinese nationalities are nations, instead claiming these nations are mere minor branches of the "Zhonghua" or "Great Chinese" nation, or "minorities" within the Chinese nation, and saying that China has the right to colonialize them forever, since it is the internal affair of the Chinese state and nation. Likewise, the Chinese rulers have twisted the genuine right of self-determination into local ethnic autonomy. As an example, they could simply declare all of China north of the Yangtze river to be within the IMAR and consider that to be Mongols ruling their own affairs. That is the twisted logic of what they say.

The Chinese rulers hide from the world the communist-colonial policy they are conducting among the Mongols, Tibetan, Xinjiang people's and other nationalities, and try to deceive outsiders. In fact they seek to hide the tragic and bitter truth that the nationalities are not only living without freedom just as the Chinese people do under the communist dictatorship, but under a yet more heavy burden of oppression.

The Ethnic Opposition in Inner Mongolia

Throughout the 45+ years of China's Communist-colonial regime and ethnic assimilation, the Mongolian people's struggle against oppression and persecution has continued without rest up to the present. At every stage, under all conditions a struggle in all its varied forms has been carried on. For example, in the earliest years of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region up to 1950, the "Western Mongolian autonomous government" which was founded by Demchugdongrub and did not recognize the Communist's "Autonomous Region" was liquidated by the Chinese Army. Likewise local resistance struggles sprung up everywhere so that in 1948 20,000 were killed and in 1953 10,000. Even after the firm establishment of the Communist-colonial regime resistance continued. The herding masses in order to protect their pasture lands constantly clashed with Chinese settlers. These clashes would cover a whole sumu (Mongolian administrative unit equal to a township) or even a banner. For example from 1976 - 1980 large

clashes occurred in Kashigtan, Uushin and Bairin banners. Likewise in the first years of the Cultural Revolution Mongolian students and intellectuals in Khokhekhota organized armed self-defense units.

In 1975 in the suit of the "one hundred widowed women" case several hundred women whose husbands had been killed in the Cultural Revolution filed suit and surrounded the Inner Mongolian party committee.

But a relatively more organized secret political organization than before was the group named "The Children of the Repressed," led by Wan Jianxi active politically from 1974 to 1979. This group of Mongolian intellectual youth exposed to the ethnic discrimination and liquidation of the Cultural Revolution, collected documentation on it and produced many leaflets and pamphlets. In 1979 many members were arrested and sentenced to 8 years in jail. The largest scale resistance struggle was the student movement of 1981. The young ethnic politicians who organized this movement were the most influential opposition movement in the 1980s ethnic opposition, and brought open opposition to the ethnic policies of the Chinese authorities on to the political stage. This resistance struggle brought in Mongol college students, pupils, workers, city residents, rural herdsmen, and officials numbering up to 100,000 and was the first large non-violent student struggle since the Communist take-over not only in Inner Mongolia but a

ll of China. It upheld an outspoken opposition to the position of the authorities and carried on the struggle for two months. It had a tremendous significance in reviving the ethnic consciousness of the Mongols in Inner Mongolia and in developing experience for future struggles. Unfortunately this struggle was limited to Inner Mongolia, as the Chinese

authorities smothered news of it, so that outsiders as before had no idea what was happening in Inner Mongolia. After this movement, Inner Mongolian opposition organizations and groups multiplied, and constantly carried on secret activities. After 1987, another group of student and youth ethnic opposition groups emerged and began to help the 1981 groups.

The fact that these numerous struggles were always limited either to a single locality or to Inner Mongolia, and unknown to outsiders harmed them. Considering concrete conditions bringing the Inner Mongolian question to world attention, breaking the stranglehold on information held for many years by the Chinese became the most pressing problem in the Inner Mongolia political situation. As a clear attempt in this direction they began participating, from 1987 on, in Chinese student movements. In August 1987 three leaders of the 1981 movement crossed the frontier into neighboring Mongolia, but were quickly handed back to the Chinese authorities and their leader Baatur was sentenced to 8 years in prison. So one attempt was defeated. At the end of that same month, August, another group of three comrades also crossed the Mongolian frontier but was able to remain in Mongolia. This was the most favorable attitude shown to Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition since 1949. Previously the thousands of Inner Mongolian refug

ees who crossed the Mongolian frontier were extradited back to the Chinese government or if allowed to live in Mongolia doing manual labor, only on the condition that they agree beforehand not to carry on any political activity. The representatives this time of the opposition joined the 1990 Mongolian democratic revolution, and in February 1990 at the first Congress of the first opposition organization the "Mongolian Democratic Association," delivered congratulations on behalf of the Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition. Forty years after 1949 they announced not only to Mongolia but to the whole world the news about Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition taking a new step in bringing the Inner Mongolian nationality question to world attention. They astonished their audience by describing how the ethnic opposition in Inner Mongolia has many groups of varying size, how they have strongly encouraged the people, caused a new upsurge in the ethnic movement and worried the Chinese government tremendously.

From this time onwards some groups in the ethnic opposition began open activities abroad. In June 4, 1990 a sit-in organized by the Inner Mongolian Opposition was held in front of the Chinese embassy in Mongolia, along with other demonstrations.

This was the first Mongolian opposition not only in Mongolia but in the world. The numerous activities that followed marked the beginning of a previously unknown aspect of the nationality struggle - the move onto the international political stage. To a certain extent it built up experience in the field of open activism. At the same time, back in Inner Mongolia, a movement led by Khuchungtegus, one of the main leaders of the 1981 student movement, "the Yekye Zhum district Mongol Cultural Study Society" stepped up their activities especially in the sphere of propaganda, then in May 1991 the leaders were arrested, and more than 30 other involved people were imprisoned and interrogated. A secret group linked to the two groups, "The Inner Mongolia Human Rights Defense Committee," however, informed foreigners about the real situation of the suppression of the Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition by the Chinese authorities. The Asia Watch organization produced a 32 page pamphlet "Crackdown in Inner Mongolia" produced

by a respected foreign organization, that reflected the struggle of the Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition and the reality of Inner Mongolia.

In October 1991 Mongolian students organized a four day sit-in in front of the Chinese embassy in Mongolia along with other activities. The Inner Mongolian ethnic opposition supported these demonstrations and issued demands, through Mongolia's human rights organizations and newspapers, for the release of political prisoners in Inner Mongolia. It also began activities, supported activities and publications for the Inner Mongolian people.

In July, 1992, several Inner Mongolian opposition organizations combined to openly form the "General Coordinating Council of the South Mongolian Revival Movements," issued a manifesto that officially clarified the Inner Mongolian Ethnic Opposition's position and ideology. Thus the struggle was refined as it developed into a new stage.

In this way the Inner Mongolian Ethnic Opposition has come out from the old stage of isolation, successfully leapt over the information prohibition of the Chinese authorities and clarified its position as an open opposition on the world stage. Having received a certain amount of foreign support it is confident about its future prospects for growth and development

The main aim of the opposition is at home, to deepen the existing struggle to expose china's criminal communist - colonial policy and abroad to openly raise the nationality question in Inner Mongolia to increase its international influence and thus to tighten coordination between organizations at home and abroad.

In the context of the opposition struggle in Inner Mongolian human rights, civilization, and environment occupy the leading role. It has been able to successfully organize to widely expose the actions of the Chinese authorities within specific documentation.

One thing to be emphasized here is that in the last few months these opposition activities have not been restricted to Mongolia but have also begun in countries like Germany, Japan, and America. Although it is weak in these countries and has only been established for a short time, to go from absence to presence is a step of great importance to the Inner Mongolian Ethnic Opposition. Whether this task, imposed on the Inner Mongolian Ethnic Opposition by its own people, can be fulfilled will be shown in practice by life.

Editor's note : This article was written in 1992. Since then, repression of Mongolian dissidents has continued unabated. In December 1996, Hada and Tegexi were sentenced to 15 and 10 years for alleged separatist activities.