When we think of Mongolia, we naturally clearly refer to Outer Mongolia, that is, the Mongolian People's Republic. Mongolia's past and present lives are indeed magical. 网络上有关资料纷繁复杂、眼花缭乱，很有必要沿其历史脉络主线梳理一下，以期为广大读者释怀。
1. Is "Mongolia's return to China" a false proposition?
Mongolia was already under the rule of the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century and was an integral part of China.
Perhaps the most impressive thing in recent years has been the sandstorms that often come from the northern neighbor. Then there was the 2020 epidemic of the new coronavirus, Mongolia donated 30,000 fat sheep to China in order to support China's fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Today's Mongolia is indeed our friendly neighbor, and the good-neighborly friendship between China and Mongolia is clearly revealed.
Mongolia is a landlocked country surrounded by two countries, located between China and Russia in central Asia. The official language is Mongolian, and Tibetan Buddhism is predominantly practiced. 蒙古国中部被130万平方公里巨型沙漠覆盖，把蒙古分割成漠北、漠南、漠西三大区域，而且地广人稀，蒙古人主要从事游牧和采矿业。 Ulaanbaatar is its capital and largest city. With 21 provinces under its jurisdiction and a land area of 1,566,500 square kilometers, it is the second largest landlocked country in the world after Kazakhstan, with a population of about 3,458,000 (2023).
Mongolia was historically part of China's territory. Only the northern border borders Russia, close to the mainland, North China and Northeast China's heavy industry bases, and its strategic position is extraordinary. Why are the seers now concerned and discussing the status of Mongolia and the possibility of its return?
On the contrary, "we must liberate Taiwan!" is the firm will of all Chinese. No one ever doubted its feasibility and possibility. Please note here that Mongolia and Taiwan are completely two different issues and cannot be said on the same day.
2. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the Mongols ruled all of China.
Historically, Mongolia was ruled by a number of nomadic peoples such as the Xiongnu, Turkic, and Khitan. In 1206, after Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes, he established the Great Mongolian State. The northern and southern regions of Mobei were gradually integrated into a new ethnic community, and "Mongolia" officially became the name of the nation, and later developed into the Yuan Dynasty.
The iron cavalry of the Great Mongolian Kingdom was very strong, and it conquered many countries militarily. The strategic focus of the Mongol rulers at that time had gradually shifted from the Mongolian Plateau to the Central Plains. In 1234, he united with the Northern Song Dynasty to destroy Liaojin, and later the Yuan Dynasty destroyed Western Xia and Dali, and his rule extended to present-day Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Yunnan.
In the face of the military pressure of the Great Mongolia, the old land of Liaojin and the Southern Song Dynasty had a strong sense of resistance. In order to reduce the strong color of conquest of neighboring countries, in 1271, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, changed the name of the country from "Great Mongolia" to "Great Yuan" (referred to as Yuan), which was an important step to move closer to Han culture and declare the Great Yuan as Chinese orthodoxy to the other countries. As a result, the Mongols ruled the Central Plains, which had a population dozens of times larger than their own. After that, it began in 1276 and lasted three years to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty and unify the whole country.
The rulers from the steppes all had one thing in common, that is, they were satisfied with only collecting taxes and superficial submissions, and generally did not make great efforts to govern the country, but entrusted it to the local bureaucracy. As a result, the rule of the late Yuan Dynasty was dark, weak and poor, the people were not able to make a living, and there were many complaints, and anti-Yuan waves and uprisings continued in various places.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Red Turban Army uprising broke out, Zhu Yuanzhang joined Guo Zixing's rebel army, and was called King Wu in 1364, and was proclaimed emperor in early 1368, with the country name "Daming", and the capital was Nanjing. In the same year, the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed by the rebel army led by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the Ming Dynasty general Xu Da led an army to capture the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (present-day Beijing), ending the Mongol rule over the Central Plains for nearly a hundred years. Emperor Yuan Shun fled all the way north to the Mongolian steppe, and continued to be the emperor on the steppe, known as the "Northern Yuan" in history.
Although the Mongols were defeated by the Ming Dynasty and retreated to the grassland, the Ming Dynasty never completely conquered the Mongols, and often clashed with the Ming Dynasty on the border, which has always become a border trouble of the Ming Dynasty.
During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang and his son Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition against Mongolia many times. At the same time, he also adopted Huairou means to encircle and disintegrate the nobles of the Mongol tribes.
In 1402, the Northern Yuan Dynasty perished, and Mongolia gradually decomposed into three major parts according to the region.
Moxi Mongolia is the present-day Xinjiang region, Mobei Mongolia is the present-day Mongolia, and Monan Mongolia is the present-day Inner Mongolia region. Although the various tribes of Mongolia nominally revered the descendants of Genghis Khan, in reality they did not belong to each other. This was also the main reason for the later partition of Inner and Outer Mongolia.
3. During the Manchu Dynasty, the Mongols submitted to China.
In 1644, the Ming general Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and Dolgon led the Qing troops into the customs. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the pattern of China as a unified multi-ethnic world power was finally determined. He first conquered and ruled the Monan region, and then Kangxi conquered Galdan three times, forcing Mobei Mongolia to surrender to the Qing Dynasty and completely incorporate it into the Qing Dynasty.
In the twentieth year of Qianlong (1755), Qianlong sent troops to pacify Moxi Mongolia many times, and finally incorporated it into the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
So far, Mongolia has basically been conquered by the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time, it has stationed defense generals, and also set up fixed nomadic areas for Mongolian departments, which is more conducive to the rule and management of the Qing Dynasty.
At the same time, Qianlong used three basic national policies to balance the Mongolian tribes: Manchu and Mongolian marriages, the weakening of feudalism, and the domestication of Buddhism. This led to the complete conquest of Mongolia by the Qing Dynasty. After that, the Mongols remained subservient to the Qing Dynasty until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
4. During the period of Soviet Russia, Mongolia was controlled by foreign enemies.
Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia took advantage of the decline of the late Qing Dynasty to gradually control the Outer Mongolia region and support the Mongolian puppet regime for more than 100 years. Moreover, step by step, the independence of Outer Mongolia was planned.
The Qing Dynasty fell in 1911. On December 28, 1911, Outer Mongolia declared its "independence", and Tsarist Russia presented itself as the protector of Mongolia, but it was not internationally recognized. After the abdication of the Qing Emperor, the Beiyang government continued to negotiate with Tsarist Russia and signed the Sino-Russian-Mongolian Entente on June 7, 1915, barely retaining its sovereignty over Outer Mongolia in the legal sense.
In 1921, under the control of Soviet Russia, the "Mongol emperor" formed the so-called "autonomous government". The Mongolian constitutional monarchy was formally established and declared independent. Until the establishment of the Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, it was under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. During this period, the Chinese Government negotiated and signed the Agreement on the Outline of the Settlement of Outstanding Cases with the Government of Soviet Russia, which still stipulates that Outer Mongolia is part of China's territory and that China enjoys territorial sovereignty.
During World War II, the Soviet Union wanted to make Mongolia independent at any cost, so it forced the Nationalist Government to agree to sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, so that the Nationalist Government had to give up the sovereignty of Outer Mongolia in exchange for the Soviet Union's war against Japan.
Stalin once said to Chiang Ching-kuo:
"To tell you the truth, I want Mongolia from a purely military strategic point of view. If a military force attacked the USSR from Outer Mongolia, as soon as the Trans-Siberian Railway was cut off, Russia would be finished. "Stalin was already worried that the United States posed a threat to the Soviet Union, and that if Outer Mongolia were in Chinese hands, it could be detrimental to the Soviet Union.
In the eyes of the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia adjoins Siberia, which covers an area of more than 13 million square kilometers. If a foreign enemy drives from Mongolia into Siberia, it can divide Russia in two, which is fatal to Russia's national security. Therefore, the strategic position of Mongolia is very important.
Because Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government followed a pro-American line, the Soviet Union was worried that Chiang Kai-shek, with the support of American forces, would invade Siberia and threaten national interests, so it strongly supported Outer Mongolia in seeking independence.
5. During the Republic of China, Mongolia officially seceded from China.
Why did Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government acquiesce to the Soviet Union's deliberate plot for the independence of Outer Mongolia? This is because Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government, focusing on the interests of the bureaucratic capital of the four major families, chose to follow a pro-US and anti-communist line. He did not hesitate to betray China's sovereignty and even turn China into a colony of the United States.
With the outbreak of the September 18 Incident in 1931 and the full-scale War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, the Nationalist Government was overwhelmed with the ability to deal with the Outer Mongolian issue.
Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang agreed to the independence of Outer Mongolia, and also wanted to recognize the independence of Outer Mongolia in exchange for the Soviet Union sending troops to the northeast to fight the Japanese army. At the same time, he won Stalin's sympathy for the Nationalist Government and no longer supported the Chinese Communist Party.
Thus, in the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance signed on August 14, 1945, the question of the independence of Outer Mongolia was decided by the people of Outer Mongolia by their own vote. The so-called referendum in Outer Mongolia was in fact manipulated by the Soviets, and the result of the referendum was obviously the independence of Outer Mongolia.
Finally, on January 5, 1946, the Republic of China had to formally recognize the independence of the Mongolian People's Republic and separate Mongolia from China. Moreover, in order to ensure the security of the borders, the Soviet Union further strengthened its military control over Mongolia, making Mongolia a puppet and satellite state of the Soviet Union.
6. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China and Mongolia have been friendly and peaceful.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on October 16, 1949, the People's Republic of China and Mongolia established diplomatic relations and recognized the independent sovereign status of the Mongolian People's Republic.
In 1953, after Khrushchev came to power, China negotiated with the Soviet Union and no longer recognized Mongolia's independent status, which was rejected by the Soviet Union.
In 1960, the People's Republic of China and Mongolia signed the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance between China and Mongolia. The Boundary Treaty was signed in 1962. In 1994, the Sino-Mongolian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed.
7. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, why didn't China take the opportunity to take back Outer Mongolia?
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 necessitated the loosening of restrictions on Mongolia. Outer Mongolia is originally a mainland territory, and in 1992 Outer Mongolia took the initiative to return to China, but the mainland refused. The main reasons are as follows:
First, Outer Mongolia has always been a "buffer zone" between China and Russia, and the reconquest operation may cause strong dissatisfaction and state intervention in Russia, intensify the contradictions between China and Russia, and the gains outweigh the losses. The existence of Mongolia is a reassurance for Russia. Therefore, Mongolia not only has beef and mutton, but also a strategic buffer zone between China and Russia.
Second: Outer Mongolia belongs to the grassland zone, the terrain is flat, it cannot be formed into a strategic fortress, it is difficult to defend and easy to attack, and it is necessary to invest a large number of troops to protect the frontier. You must remember that after the 60s of the last century, along with the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, the Soviet Union deployed millions of troops on the Sino-Mongolian border, seriously threatening our national security. The Treasure Island incident is even more vivid and vivid.
Third: Because Outer Mongolia is now an independent country that joined the United Nations in 1961, if it returns at this time, the international community will consider it to have been annexed by China. Recognizing the independence of Outer Mongolia is China's promise, and the Chinese cannot do "treacherous" things.
Fourth, the relationship between Outer Mongolia and China has gradually become estranged, and the issues of identity and psychological belonging are very complex. Reconquest by force can have unpredictable consequences.
Fifth, Outer Mongolia is a landlocked country, with a backward economy, a single economic structure, relying solely on animal husbandry and mining, and far from the coastline, so its economic development is limited, and it will become an economic burden for China after forced recovery.
Sixth, China upholds the concept of peace-loving and takes economic development as the central national policy. The recapture of Outer Mongolia by force would run counter to China's concept of peace and would not be in the country's long-term development interests.
It can be seen from this that China's failure to recover Outer Mongolia in 1991 was a wise choice made by our party. Risks that could lead to national unpredictability are avoided. Demonstrate our more pragmatic and prudent diplomatic wisdom. Abandoning Outer Mongolia may be unacceptable to the Chinese people, but it is the right decision to make after weighing the pros and cons. This avoids many worries and ensures the country's border stability and economic prosperity.
When you think about the current situation of the Ukrainian people, it's chilling. The water is not too deep and the fire is too hot!
Therefore, it is said: Mongolia - no return!
(Most of the information and pictures come from the Internet)