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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

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
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

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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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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

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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

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