Ethnopolitics in modern China: the Nationalists, Muslims, and Mongols in wartime Alashaa Banner (1937–1945)

Abstract

This article reveals the murky political landscape of Alashaa Banner in Inner Mongolia during the Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945). By using various archival documents and secondary source materials, this research seeks to present a clearer picture of Inner Mongolian borderlands, involving the Chinese Nationalists, the Sinicized Muslims, and the Inner Mongols. Instead of restating the ‘ineffectiveness’ or ‘weakness’ of the Nationalist frontier administration in China's innermost borderlands during the pre-1949 decades, this article attempts to explore the extent of the war-threatened Nationalist Chinese effort to initiate their state-building tasks and promote their regime's power consolidation in modern China's northern periphery.

Keywords:

• Inner Mongolia
• Nationalist China
• ethnopolitics
• Alashaa
• Sinicized Muslims

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Center for Mongolian Studies, Boston. Special thanks go to Uradyn E. Bulag, Laura J. Newby, Chih-yu Shi, Hiromi Kinoshita and Hai-lei Hsu for their helpful comments, suggestions and criticism. A junior research grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (USA) greatly facilitates this research project. I would also like to express my gratitude for the facilities and guidance offered by Academia Historica (Taipei), Institute of Modern History Archives, Academia Sinica (Taipei), Kuomintang Party Archives (Taipei), British National Archives (London), and British Library (London), while this research was undertaken.

Notes

¹Lu, Chuxun Alashan Qi, AAH, 2/0885-2/0886.

²Ibid., 2/0793-2/0796. Apart from Lu Bangdao, during the war, there were two other Nationalist Military Commissioners stationed in Ejine Banner who also reached the Sino-MPR border. Yet no firsthand reports of their travels are left. See ‘Report on the nine-year planning and military schedule for Ejine Banner’, enclosed in Executive Yuan to Chinese Foreign Ministry, 7 August 1947, Institute of Modern History Archives, AMFA-1, 112/93. Wurlig Borchigud's analysis of Ma Hetian's travelogue in Inner and Outer Mongolia in the mid-1920s provides us with another valuable source for understanding Nationalist China's frontier activities. See Borchigud, ‘Between Chinese Nationalism and Soviet Colonisation’, 27–46. See also DeFrancis, Chinese Agent in Mongolia.

³A general discussion of China's frontier policy during the Nationalist period (1928–1949) can be found in: Dreyer, China's Forty Millions; Mackerras, China's Minorities; Yang and Peng, Zhongguo Jindai Minzu Guanxishi.

⁴The term ‘Outer Mongolia’ [Wai Menggu] is a somewhat Sino-centric term used in contrast to ‘Inner Mongolia’ [Nei Menggu], the territory along its southeastern border inhabited by Mongols but administratively integrated into China. See Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, 297.

⁵On Mongolian league and banner system in the Qing period, and the early Manchu-Mongol relationship, see: Bawden, The Modern History of Mongolia.

⁶Rupen, How Mongolia is really Ruled, 5–23.

⁷Lattimore, Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, 440–455.

⁸Second Historical Archives of China, Zhonghua Minguoshi, 5: 1 (2), 84–85.

⁹Zhang, Bianjiang Zhengzhi, 143–144.

¹⁰Jagchid, The Last Mongol Prince, 60–99.

¹¹Second Historical Archives of China, Zhonghua Minguoshi, 5: 1 (5), 108–118.

¹²Ibid., 45–48, 68, 75–76.

¹³Lin, Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier, 40–44.

¹⁴Ibid., 43.

¹⁵Demchugdongrob, ‘Kangzhanqian’, 4–52.

¹⁶Report by the British Military Attaché to Sir Cadogan (British Ambassador to China), 14 August 1934, National Archives (London), FO 676/175.

¹⁷Fu Zuoyi (Governor of Suiyuan) to Chiang Kai-shek, 11 November 1935, Academia Historica (Taipei), TD/MB, Vol. 51, No. 41941; Yan Xishan to Chiang, 8 December 1935, ibid., No. 41937; Chiang to Yan, 13 December 1935, ibid., No. 41938.

¹⁸China: Annual Report, 1938, 18–19, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2279. See also Jagchid and Hyer, Mongolia's Culture and Society.

¹⁹J. D. Greenway (Peking) to Foreign Office, 17 June 1938, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305; Sir A. Clark-Kerr (British Ambassador to China) to Foreign Office, 26 July 1938, ibid. Other Japanese-supported regimes included one in southern Chahar and one in northern Shanxi. See Hikoji Monkyo Manhi, 39–78. Hikoji was serving as a ‘councilor’ when the Mongolian Federated Autonomous Government was set up in 1937.

²⁰Confidential report from He Yaozu (Acting Governor of Gansu) to Chiang Kai-shek, 4 September 1937, Academia Historica (Taipei), TW, Vol. 5, No. 26034167; Confidential dispatch entitled ‘Political and Economic Conditions in Inner Mongolia’, enclosed in British Embassy in China to Foreign Office, 29 December 1938, National Archives (London), FO 371/23495.

²¹British Political Office in Sikkim to Government of India, 30 March 1939, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305; Li Tiezheng (Foreign Ministry Special Commissioner in Gansu) to Foreign Ministry, 3 February 1939, Academia Historica (Taipei), AMFA-2, 172-1/1402-7.

²²Hao, Neimenggu Jindai Jianshi, 199–202; Report from G. P. Young (Peking) to Foreign Office, 26 July 1938, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305.

²³Chen, Ningxia Tongshi, 187–189; Huang, Kangzhan Yilai zhi Bianjiang, 8–19.

²⁴‘Note on Inner Mongolia’, by Charles Bell, March 1937, British Library (London), OIOC, Mss. Eur. F80/213; Memorandum entitled ‘Political and economic conditions in Inner Mongolia’, British Embassy in China to Foreign Office, 29 December 1938, National Archives (London), FO 371/23495.

²⁵Investigative report from Wangyal to Charles Bell, 26 December 1936, British Library (London), OIOC, Mss. Eur. F80/213.

²⁶These Japanese military advisors included Major Hayama, Major Ishida Mitsuro, and Major Kumoda Toshio. See Chen, Ningxia Tongshi, 184. Regarding Japanese westward advanced activities in Inner Mongolia, see also Jagchid, The Last Mongol Prince, 122–167.

²⁷Hu, Minguo Shiqi di Ningxiasheng, 20–22.

²⁸Sun, ‘Ningxia E-A Lianqi di Weiju’, 85–91.

²⁹Chen, Ningxia Tongshi, 189–190; Report from Allan Archer (Peking) to Foreign Office, 29 December 1938, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305.

³⁰Report from J. D. Greenway (Peking) to Foreign Office on the situation in Inner Mongolia, 17 June 1938, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305.

³¹Proposal submitted by Wu Zhongxin (Head of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission) to Chiang Kai-shek, August 1939, Academia Historica (Taipei), TD/YB, Vol. 64, No. 42538.

³²Memorandum by the Nationalist Military Commissioner's Office in Alashaa Banner, October 1939, Kuomintang Party Archives (Taipei), AKHC, 510/13.

³³Memorandum by Ejine Banner government to Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, top secret, 7 August 1947, Institute of Modern History Archives, AMFA-1, 112/93.

³⁴Hao, Neimenggu Jindai Jianshi, 210–211.

³⁵Memorandum by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission concerning wartime administration in the frontier territory, April 1939, Kuomintang Party Archives (Taipei), ASNDC, 003/103.

³⁶G. P. Young (Peking) to Foreign Office, 14 May 1938, British Library (London), OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305; Li Tiezheng (Lanzhou) to Foreign Ministry, 3 March 1938, Academia Historica (Taipei), AMFA-2, 172-1/1402-1.

³⁷Lu Bangdao's report to Chiang Kai-shek, 9 November 1944, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1104-2/1110.

³⁸Lu Bangdao to Chiang Kai-shek concerning the situation of Ningxia under Ma Hongkui, 1 May 1943, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1091-2/1092.

³⁹Report on the 9-year planning and military schedule of Ejine Banner, enclosed in Executive Yuan to Foreign Ministry, 7 August 1947, Institute of Modern History Archives, AMFA-1, 112/93.

⁴⁰Second Historical Archives of China, Zhonghua Minguoshi, 5: 2 (1), 653, 660–661.

⁴¹Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Annual Report 1938–1939, enclosed in Supreme National Defense Council to Executive Yuan, 4 April 1939, Kuomintang Party Archives (Taipei), ASNDC, 003/020; Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Annual Report 1941, May 1942, ibid., 510/52.

⁴²Lin, ‘War, Leadership and Ethnopolitics’, 203–207.

⁴³Lu Bangdao to Chiang Kai-shek, 1 May 1943, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1093.

⁴⁴Lu Bangdao to Ministry of Military Ordinance, 11 November 1944, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1107-2/1109.

⁴⁵Lu, Chuxun Alashan Qi, AAH, 2/0808, 2/0813-2/0816, 2/0817-2/0821, 2/0877-2/0879.

⁴⁶Ibid., 2/0916-2/0917.

⁴⁷Ibid., 2/0916-2/0920, 2/0935-2/0936.

⁴⁸Ibid., 2/0893-2/0902.

⁴⁹Ibid., 2/0945-2/0946.

⁵⁰Lu Bangdao to Ministry of Military Ordinance, 9 November 1944, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1104; Lu, Chuxun Alashan Qi, ibid., 2/0914-2/0916, 2/0936.

⁵¹Lu, Chuxun Alashan Qi, ibid., 2/0828-2/0829, 2/0831-2/0834.

⁵²‘Proposal submitted for the opening of new irrigation ditches in Alashaa Banner’, 15 August 1942, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1065-2/1079. However, there is no evidence whether Lu's ideas were eventually carried out by the Nationalist center.

⁵³Lu, Chuxun Alashan Qi, AAH, 2/0947-2/0948.

⁵⁴Ibid., 2/0948-2/0952.

⁵⁵Memorandum entitled ‘Conditions in Ningsia Province’, enclosed in British Military Attaché in China to War Office, 15 August 1942, National Archives (London), WO 208/2873.

⁵⁶Lu Bangdao to Chiang Kai-shek, 1 May 1943, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1091.

⁵⁷Ibid., 2/1091-2/1905.

⁵⁸Lu Bangdao to Ministry of Military Ordinance, 9 October 1943, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1099-2/1102.

⁵⁹For example, General Fu Zuoyi, the Governor of Suiyuan Province, had more than once reminded Chongqing high officials that Ma Hongkui's cooperation with the Nationalists was so important that Chongqing should not pursue his underground business dealings with the Japanese too much. See Liu, Zhongxin yu Bianyuan, 148–149.

⁶⁰Lu Bangdao to Ministry of Military Ordinance, 9 November 1944, AAH, 202000000A, 2/1103-2/1110. After nearly two years of investigation, the Nationalist Government could not find sufficient evidence to accuse Lu of his ‘wrongdoings’ in Alashaa. Nonetheless, as the war came to an end, Chongqing did not pardon Lu either.

⁶¹Jin, ‘Yishu Guomindang Yuanlao Wu Zhongxin’, 78–79.

⁶²Eric Teichman (Lanzhou) to Sir H. Seymour (British Ambassador to China), 3 September 1943, National Archives (London), FO 436/16518.

⁶³‘News Summary of September 1942’, enclosed in Seymour to Foreign Office, 5 October 1942, National Archives (London), FO 436/16373. Chiang Kai-shek's pleasure over Xinjiang's return to the Nationalist fold was sufficiently revealed in his diary. See Furuya, Chiang Kai-shek, 744–745.

⁶⁴Whiting and Sheng, Sinkiang: Pawn or Pivot?, 51; Forbes, Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia, 157–162.

⁶⁵Wu, Ningxia Jindai Lishi Jinian, 281–283; Hao, Neimenggu Jindai Jianshi, 102–129.

⁶⁶Eric Teichman's travel report to Chinese Central Asia, enclosed in British Embassy in China to Foreign Office, 10 November 1943, National Archives (London), FO 436/16518; Jin, ‘Yishu Guomindang Yuanlao’, 79.

⁶⁷Wu, Ningxia Jindai Lishi Jinian, 284–285.

⁶⁸Jagchid, The Last Mongol Prince, 319–342.

⁶⁹‘Revised regulations regarding the Military Commissioner stationed in Alashaa and Ejine Banners’, enclosed in Ministry of National Defense to Foreign Ministry, 3 December 1946, Institute of Modern History Archives, AMFA-1, 120/2.