The Mongolians in China number about five million and are struggling to maintain their identity and their culture. Now China has clamped down on the autonomous region known as Inner Mongolia, which lies within the boundaries of China, and shares a border with Mongolia, and Russia. China has declared martial law in the region. Generally, the people of Inner Mongolia have remained peaceful and passive over the years; Inner Mongolian intellectuals and writers have called on China to respect their human rights, but these calls have been rewarded by detention, and in some cases lengthy imprisonment. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International point out that protests in other regions, Xinjiang and Tibet, have been met with severe repression. But unlike the populations of Xingjian and Tibet, the Inner Mongolians seldom resort to visible protestation.
About 2000 students of Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia came out to demonstrate and to show solidarity with a killed livestock herder named Mergen on Wednesday. The students chanted "Protect our land, protect our rights!" Some claim that many students are locked in their schools, to prevent them from joining the protest. Photos support the version of Amnesty International, and clearly show the standoff between students and police. There hasn’t as yet been any violence in Xilinhot, but there are reports of about 18 injuries in nearby towns.
The current demonstrations in Inner Mongolia are the result of the local herder being killed by a hit-and-run driver. Inner Mongolians usually go by one name only; the herder, Mergen, one of a group of herders who were angered by conditions, and trying to block a convoy of coal trucks, was struck and killed by one of the trucks. This occured on May 10 of this year.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Janman
When the whole place is clamped, how does the author managed to come out with all its irrelevant imagination. Maybe just like WMD in Iraq.
Nothing worth to read with unsubstantiated news like that.
2 - Victim
That's the truth! We need help!
3 - Glenn Contrarian
Janman -
There are still people who travel in and out, and they DO have the internet there, too, you know. News gets out...unless you're in North Korea where no one is allowed a TV or radio that can receive broadcasts from any non-government-approved station, and very, very few people can access the internet.
Furthermore, despite all the attacks by the Right, Amnesty International is a good organization...and FAR more trustworthy than Faux 'News'.
4 - Leroy
Good article, John Lake. Much appreciated.
Not all Americans are as isolated and insular as one might think. Not everyone in USA is resistant to the lives of mere shepherds.
5 - John Lake
That's the whole point, gents. As odd as it sounds, my aim is to provide more information than you will find at ordinary outlets. Research is my middle name.
I took the chance of providing the CNN photo, which substantiates the whole affair.
An interesting anecdote, though I searched high and low, I couldn't document what type of livestock Mergen ordinarily herds; sheep, goats,.. lama?
So, have a great weekend!
6 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
I hope the Mongolians do not swallow racists' poison Kool-Aid. They got more of everything than the Hans Chinese, money, benefits and surprise, including freedom. They are spoiled. It may back fire on them one day. They admire the white men. Then, one day, the Chinese will learn the lesson and say to them " We will treat you like the White men treating Indians and people of the color and you are out."
7 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
Some Han Chinese each year are killed unjustifiably and want to address for justice. So this is a law enforcement, justice, compensation issue and should not be used by CIA or racists and turn it into a race or political issue. I was reading World Journal, a Chinese language newspaper published in the USA, which reported the proposed compensation was about 400,000 Yuen and apparently the victim’s side want more money. Now, it is talking about may be about 600,000. All in a sudden, it become a bigger issue make one suspect that evil hand is sticking its finger in the pot to stir up troubles.
Also, the report seems to suggest that the herdsmen run out of space due to Han invasions. That seems to be misleading. Many Mongolian Chinese are doing mechanical farmings and become middle class and some very rich. Land can be sold to mining companies and are not forfeited. Just the opposite, it is Han farmers sometimes get raw deals from their local officials for their land and change them into real estate or other developments without fair compensation.
There are problems in China due to rapid growth. Han Chinese practise racism like the Whiteman is not one of them.
8 - John Lake
Sir Percy:
Thank you for shedding some light on another point of view.
I was wondering, however, if the miners and herders think much about cowboys and Indians.
9 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
John, thanks for being such a good sport.
Here something I blogged recently about Tibet which is related to the general perception about how the Hans treating minorities.
The Tibetan population has increased from about over one million to three millions today the opposite to so call “genocide” during the last 60 years. Illiteracy reduced from over 90% to below 10%. Life expectancy at birth from just over 30 years has been doubled to more than 65 years. Medical, housing, clean water, welfare benefit, income have been substantially improved. Except during the period of Cultural Revolution when all China was in turmoil, much of Tibetan literature, Buddhism scriptures, monasteries, and ancient buildings have been restored. China is a country of literature and history. and treasures all heritage.
Some Tibetans have been misguided by Dalai Lama and CIA propaganda seduced to the Dalai Lama camp to become so called “exile”. Many regret to have moved from a good country to a dump
One biased western lady reporter for a major US newspaper was visiting Tibet and saw all the good things and people were happy, peaceful. Her reaction was something like this:” I just don’t believe what I see and want to see some bad things happening here. Particularly, I am tired of being told repeatly that they were so proud of the Tibetan female athlete carried the Beijing Olympic Torch to the peak of Mount Everest.”
On the lighter side, here is a video about a courageous young Tibetan lady mail carrier being honored by the International Postal Mail Carrier Union. You need to be a “Raider of the Lost Ark” in order to be a mail carrier in some remote part of China.
We should give credit to China to improve conditions in Tibet when population are scattered over vast land which become very challenging in cost and efforts. When the Daila Lama and the 100,000 so call Tibetans in exile try to lecture China and the three million Tibetans who live in a much higher standard of everthing, it seems to be rather arrogant and hypocritical.
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10 - John Lake
I learn more with each passing day..
11 - Cindy
Thanks for this article, John.
12 - Cannonshop
Hmmm...what does the actual chinese LAW say? If the natives are supposed to benefit from the Coal mining, and the lion's share of the profits are going to settlers and outsiders, well...it really doesn't matter if they're 'spoiled' as Lord Percy says, or not-it means the people administering the funds and the mines are corrupt-even in a People's Republic's terms-perhaps ESPECIALLY by the terms of the PRC-to profit is good, to profit by breaking the law, is a crime.
13 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
Cannonshop, Inner Mongolia has been part of China for many hundred of years. Han Chinese are not outsiders. Over whelming Mongolians are 100% Chinese. There are a few have drunk Western Kool-Aids and being discontented. You can never guarantee 100% of the people are happy no matter what countries you are in.
14 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
However, it is entirely possible that the protesters’ concern is a legitimate one. Should there be a balance of growth and protection of environment? Can China’s central government conduct an open discussion regarding zoning policies with the input from the locals? I don’t have enough information to judge one way or the other and hope the conflict to be resolved soon.
15 - Glenn Contrarian
"Sir Percy" -
This reminds me of the last time something was said on BC that didn't look good for China - all of a sudden, people started showing up showing support for China. Your English shows that you are not a native English speaker, and I suspect you're Chinese.
That said, tongzhi, please accept my compliments on your English - I hope that someday I can speak and write a second language as well as you can.
As to the subject, I do not argue that China has made many improvements - the Middle Kingdom certainly has! BUT I also remember speaking to a Tibetan when I once went inside China. Near the end of the conversation, I told the Tibetan that we in America hear that the Han are destroying the Tibetan culture. The Tibetan suddenly became very, very nervous, looked around fearfully to see if someone was watching, nodded in agreement that yes, it was happening...and then walked quickly away.
That sent chills down my spine. When I combine that with what we hear about how the Muslim Uighur are treated in Xinjiang province, it's not hard to remember that the same government that controls these provinces is the same one that allowed Tienanmen Square to happen.
But I do NOT condemn China...because China's facing a set of cultural and national challenges that we here in America have not faced. The difference between is us that your government is much stronger than ours, and can implement policies that ours never could...but then, that's not always a good thing.
16 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
Glenn, your allegation about China does not match the facts. Your false accusation that China is my government is obviously distasteful and with a strong racist bias. The facts are China has been too paternalistic to the minorities which is a mistake agreed by my fellow American Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer, a frequent current affairs commentator. Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians can have more than one child per family, more benefits and received more leniencies when breaking the law. I think these special privileges granted to the minorities although appreciated by many of the recipients but never the less is a mistake. From your biased viewpoint based on your narrow cultural background and experience, you are making a false accusation against the Chinese who do precisely the opposite of your ancestors have done. Just today, I read that China is actively recruiting about 15,000 teachers who are bilingual so the minority children will learn and remember their own languages and heritage. If you go to one of my links, you will find a Tibetan professor has been able to put the Tibetan language to the Window pc systems so now it become much easier for everyone, Tibetan students included, to learn, write and to preserve Tibetan language.
17 - Glenn Contrarian
Sir Perry -
Did you notice that I said that I do NOT condemn China, because China is facing challenges that we have not faced, that we have never faced? So please do not accuse me of racism - I'm white, my wife is Filipina, my oldest son is Filipino, my youngest is biracial, and my oldest Foster child is Thai and the other is biracial black/white...and in the past we've cared for a Hispanic and a Native American, too. We've got one of the LEAST racist households you'll ever see.
But again - I did NOT condemn China, did I? Why? Because every nation - every nation - does some things that are wrong. I already knew about the benefits the non-Han races have...and that's great! But helping people out does not excuse doing that which is wrong, does it? For all that America does right, our illegal invasion of Iraq (and of Vietnam, too) is a stain on our national honor.
Now here's a question for you - if you were to state that something China did is a stain on Chinese national honor, what might happen to you? I'm not asking you to make that same kind of statement, because I know what can happen to you.
Here's something else, too - unless America somehow gets its act together, the 21st century will be the Chinese century. China will be doing things that America cannot - indeed, you already have bullet trains, and we don't. I don't say that out of anger or sadness, but it is a fact.
One last thing - you believe I have a 'narrow cultural background and experience'. Be careful next time you make such accusations, because (1) I have not insulted you, but greatly complimented you on your command of English, and (2) I've been around this world in 13 (or 14) countries...and I've got a house in a foreign country as well. My wife and sons are there right now. Perhaps you have traveled more than I have...but probably not.
I don't hate China - indeed, I'd honestly love to travel China, the nation where the emperor was requiring written tests for civil service jobs two thousand years before Christ walked the earth. But my eyes are also open not only to China's good deeds, but to China's faults, as well.
18 - Clavos
Well said, Glenn.
FWIW, I've been following this thread since it began, and for some days now I have increasingly become convinced Sir Percy is a PRC government employee, and this is not the first time a story about China has drawn such participants on this site.
19 - Glenn Contrarian
Thanks, Clavos -
I thought so, too. BTW, did you see the story that some Chinese prisoners are forced to play World of Warcraft for hours on end because what they earn there can actually be sold for hard cash by the prison?
It's not as fun as it sounds, apparently...but it does bring new meaning to the phrase "twenty years at hard labor".
20 - Cannonshop
#13 I know well that you can't satisfy everybody, Percy, but obviously there IS an ethnic difference-I suspect it's about as drastic a difference as the difference between an Irishman and an Englishman, but a difference there is. The main question, though, is whether there is a legal difference, as would seem to be the case given your earlier statement about the Mongols being "Spoiled" and other allusions to what amounts to a local autonomy not enjoyed in other provinces.
Which goes back to whether there is a Law being broken-as in, a Chinese law, and if that breakage is what has stirred up the pot to such a degree that a Han-Ethnic trucker felt no compunctions about driving over a "damn herder" in front of his rig.
Obviously, the Chinese authorities have a problem with that action, but it speaks to, I think the heart of the matter-regardless of how similar, or how many centuries between them, the people living on-the-scene seem to think there's a serious difference between them, even if genetically, lingually, and in every other normal way, they are basically the same.
SOMETHING made a professional driver see a man, and run him down like a stray dog. That's usually something rooted in hate, and the usual hates that allow such dehumanizing decisions, are ethnic or racial hates.
Which means, I guess, that the PRC has a serious problem they're going to HAVE to address sooner or later. That many people, you can't let such hates take root, the sort of mess that is inconvenient and embarassing in the far-less-populous west, could be extremely destructive in the confines of a nation with a population as large as China.
21 - Jordan Richardson
did you see the story that some Chinese prisoners are forced to play World of Warcraft for hours on end because what they earn there can actually be sold for hard cash by the prison?
Yes! I'm currently doing anything and everything I can, like chewing loudly, to get thrown in a Chinese prison. One problem: China's far, dude.
22 - Glenn Contrarian
Jordan -
Yeah, but the turn-off is the twelve hours of manual labor you spend before starting your shift on Warcraft.
It's like anything else - too much of it, and you get sick of it sooner or later...especially if you're forced to do it.
23 - Sir Percy (Pen Name)
I am not an employee of Chinese government, not a spy. But when you cannot win an argument, you make a false accusation that I am a spy. That is a typical racist attitude. It happened in the USA history all the time. But when it happens today in the 21st century in such un-bashful manner is quite unusual.
24 - Clavos
Playing the race card is a great defense, Percy -- it works in any context, especially against Americans; everyone knows all Americans are carefully trained to be racists.
Puleeze...
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Sir Percy -
Read my comment #17 and then reply.