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Chinese Migration to North-West China and Inner Mongolia, 1949–59

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Henry G. Schwarz
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Extract

During the first decade of their mainland rule, the Chinese Communists sent considerable numbers of people from the densely populated provinces to develop China's frontier regions and to ensure that the minority peoples there were assimilated into the new Chinese Communist order of things. While some Chinese were sent to the minority areas of the southwest, the overwhelming majority migrated to the North-West and Inner Mongolia. From examining the available evidence, which has not been used comprehensively before, it becomes clear that the pattern of migration is essentially the same for each region in the three phases of migration which took place during the period under consideration—the small scale migration until 1955; the first organised mass migration which coincided with the Leap Forward of 1956 and the subsequent period of consolidation in 1957; and the migration during the Great Leap Forward of 1958.

Type
On the Frontiers
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 16 , December 1963 , pp. 62 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1963

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References

1 The term “North-West,” as used in this article, refers to the provinces of Kansu and Tsinghai and the autonomous regions of Sinkiang and Ninghsia.

2 Yu, Chiao, “About the problems of resettlement and reclamation,” Kuang-ming Daily, 01 15, 1957.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. June 3, 1962; NCKA, Tsingtao, 04 5, 1954.Google Scholar

4 Hanchiang Daily, Urumchi, 06 18, 1954.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. November 24, 1957.

6 NCNA, Sian, 08 5, 1954Google Scholar; NONA, Urumchi, 01 13, 1955Google Scholar; NCNA-English, Peking, May 12, 1955; NCNA, Tientsin, 05 15, 1955Google Scholar; NCNA, Peking, 08 23, 1955Google Scholar; NCNA, Urumchi, 08 24, 1955.Google Scholar

7 NCNA, Peking, 03 9, 1955.Google Scholar

8 The formal title of the movement was “Resist America and Aid Korea.”

9 People's Daily, 06 18, 1955Google Scholar; NCNA, Chengtu, 10 16, 1955Google Scholar

10 NCNA, Sining, 12 10, 1954Google Scholar; NCNA, Urumchi, 10 14, 1955.Google Scholar

11 People's Daily, 05 4, 1955.Google Scholar

12 Chung-Kuo Ching-nien Pao, 01 24, 1957.Google Scholar

13 Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 12 18, 1956.Google Scholar He taught in the Hai-Hsi Mongol, Tibetan, and Kazakh autonomous chou.

14 NCNA, Peking, 12 27, 1956.Google Scholar

15 NCNA, Peking, 03 22, 1956.Google Scholar

16 Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 11 20, 1956Google Scholar

17 NCNA, Peking, 05 17, 1956.Google Scholar

18 NCNA, Peking, 07 4, 1956.Google Scholar

19 NCNA, Siring, 01 9, 1956Google Scholar; ibid. December 14, 1956.

20 NCNA, Chengchow, 10 9, 1956.Google Scholar

21 Ling, Lei, “On resettlement and land reclamation in Tsinghai,” Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 09 6, 1956.Google Scholar

22 NCNA, Lanchow, 03 24, 1956.Google Scholar They were settled in Chang-yeh and Yin-ch'uan chuan-ch'ü and Wu-chung Hui autonomous chou.

23 NCNA, Chengchow, 07 11, 1956Google Scholar; Kuang-ming Daily, 08 13, 1956Google Scholar; Kansu Daily, Lanchow, 11 25, 1956Google Scholar; CHna Youth, 10 26, 1956Google Scholar; NCNA, Lanchow, 10 31, 1956.Google Scholar In the first nine months of 1956, Honan alone sent 165, 169 Chinese to the North-west and Heilungkiang. Among them were 50,495 members of youth land reclamation teams. See Honan Daily, Chengchow, 11 2, 1956.Google Scholar

24 Kuangmine Daily, 08 13. 1956.Google Scholar

25 Ling, Lei, “On resettlement and land reclamation in Tsinghai…”Google Scholar

26 Ibid.

27 Shang-wu, Ma, “Views on resettlers and state-operated fanns in Tsinghai,” Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 09 12, 1956.Google Scholar There were only an average of ten water tanks for 34 resettler households and five families had to share one kitchen knife.

28 China Youth, 01 24, 1957.Google Scholar

29 NCNA, Urumchi, 03 30, 1956Google Scholar; ibid. September 6, 1956; Chiao Shih-pao, Peking, 02 19, 1957.Google Scholar

30 NCNA, Uiumchi, 06 11, 1956.Google Scholar

31 In this instance, the term “overseas Chinese” is a misnomer. The Chinese term “hua-ch'iao” (literally: Chinese living in guest country) is more appropriate.

32 Sinkiang Daily, Urumchi, 11 10, 1956.Google Scholar

33 Kuang-ming Daily, 03 3, 1956.Google Scholar

34 It should be remembered that this plan did not include Shansi, Shensi, Shanghai and other places from which Chinese came.

35 NCNA, Taiyuan, 03 22, 1956Google Scholar; ibid. Huhehot, May 5, 1956. The sub-division was the Hsinpaerhhu tso ch'i.

36 The first two steel centres were at Anshan and Wuhan.

37 People's Daily, 01 8, 1957.Google Scholar

38 ibid.

39 This was revealed at a conference of CCP committees called by the Inner Mongolia party leadership. See NCNA, Huhehot, 12 24, 1956.Google Scholar

40 Kuang-ming Daily, 02 6, 1957.Google Scholar

41 NCNA, Lanchow, 10 8, 1957Google Scholar; Kansu Daily, Lanchow, 12 28, 1957.Google Scholar There were more than 10,000 evacuees from Sanntenhsia and some 260-odd college graduates, all going to Kansu, especially to Changyeh and Yinch'uan chuan-ch'ü.

42 People's Dotty, 04 21, 1958.Google Scholar

43 Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 10 21, 1958.Google Scholar

44 Ibid. March 18, 1958.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid. The programme's slogan was “Riding the wind and breaking the waves.”

47 Kuo-sheng, Chang, People's Daily, 10 26, 1958.Google Scholar Chang was secretary of the secretariat of the CCP Tsinghai provincial committee.

48 Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 03 18, 1958.Google Scholar

49 Kansu Daily, Lanchow, 06 14, 1958.Google Scholar

50 Ch'inghai Daily, Sining, 12 5, 1958Google Scholar; Honan Daily, Chengchow, 12 13, 1958Google Scholar; Fei, Fei, “The arrival in Tsinghai of young people to assist in border area construction work,” Min-tzu T'uan-chieh, 02 1959.Google Scholar From 1958 it became increasingly difficult to ascertain the actual number of migrants in any given move. Unlike in previous years, the Communists in 1958 and 1959 were quite reluctant to divulge such information.

51 NCNA, Yin-ch'uan, 10 20, 1958.Google Scholar

52 Kuang-ming Daily, 03 11, 1959Google Scholar; also NCNA, Yin-ch'uan, 06 20, 1958.Google Scholar

53 Li-chih, Hsü, “Political thinking of youths engaged in borderland construction must be deeply and completely indoctrinated and controlled,” Min-tzu T'uan-chieh, 12 6, 1958.Google Scholar Hsü was associate director of the migration office of the ministry of land reclamation in Peking.

54 Cho-yün, Chao, “The favourable situation in nationalities minority districts of North-West China,” Min-tzu T'uan-chieh, 03 6, 1960.Google Scholar

55 Kuang-ming Daily, 03 23, 1959Google Scholar; Sinkiang Daily, Urumchi, 03 13, 1959.Google Scholar The New York Times of 12 27, 1959Google Scholar, stated that in a little more than six months, about 100,000 Chinese were sent into Sinkiang. I would question this extraordinarily high figure because it was based on a report given by Sai-fu-ting. Figures cited by the Communists after 1958 were usually exaggerated.

56 Sinkiang Daily, Urumchi, 09 6, 1958.Google Scholar

57 Worker's Daily, 08 7, 1959.Google Scholar