Secession in China

Secession in China refers to several secessionist movements in the People's Republic of China.

Maximum territorial extent of the Qing dynasty of China, c. 1820
Warlord Era of China, 1924

People’s Republic of China

The 1931 constitution of the Chinese Communist Party accepted secession as legal with article 14 stating “The Soviet government of China recognizes the right of self-determination of the national minorities in China, their right to complete separation from China, and to the formation of an independent state for each national minority.” However, the CCP's change from a revolutionary group to the dominant state power in 1949 led to this language being left out of later constitutions and any legal chance for secession disappeared from Chinese law.[1]

List of secessionist movements in the People's Republic of China

Claimed region Current political status within the PRC Capital city of region Area (km2) of region Total population of region Main independence movement Main ethnic group seeking independence
East Turkestan (Xinjiang)Uyghur Autonomous Region of the PRC Ürümqi1,664,89724,870,000East Turkestan independence movementUyghur people
Hong KongSpecial Administrative Region of the PRC Hong Kong2,7557,500,700Hong Kong independence movementHong Kong people

(any resident of Hong Kong; mostly ethnic-Cantonese)

MacauSpecial Administrative Region of the PRC Macau115696,100Macau independence movementMacau people

(any resident of Macau; mostly ethnic-Cantonese)

Manchukuo (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning)Provinces of the PRC Hsinking (Changchun) 791,826109,674,521Manchukuo Temporary GovernmentManchu people
Southern Mongolia (Inner Mongolia)Autonomous Region of the PRC Hohhot1,183,00025,050,000Inner Mongolian independence movementChinese Mongols or Mongols
Tibet (Xizang, Qinghai)Autonomous Region of the PRC; Province of the PRCLhasa1,948,4008,806,722Tibetan independence movementTibetan people

Region-specific

General

Notes

Movements

Tibet

After the failed Tibetan uprising, some Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama into India, establishing a government-in-exile called the Central Tibetan Administration.[2]

The movement is no longer supported by the 14th Dalai Lama, who although having advocated it from 1961 to the late 1970s, proposed a sort of high-level autonomy in a speech in Strasbourg in 1988,[3] and has since then restricted his position to either autonomy for the Tibetan people in the Tibet Autonomous Region within China,[4] or extending the area of the autonomy to include parts of neighboring Chinese provinces inhabited by Tibetans.[5]

Xinjiang

Several armed insurgency groups are fighting the Chinese (PRC) government in Xinjiang, namely the Turkestan Islamic Party and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, which some people consider to be associated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.[6]

Inner Mongolia

South Mongolian independence is supported by these political parties: the Inner Mongolian People's Party, a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization; the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance;[7] and the Mongolian Liberal Union Party.[8]

See also

References

  1. Hales, Ben. "The Tangled History of the 'Tibet Card'". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  2. "Speech of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the European Parliament, Strasbourg". The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 14 October 2001. Archived from the original on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
  3. Smith, Warren W. (2008). China's Tibet?: Autonomy or Assimilation. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-7425-3989-1.
  4. McDonald, Hamish (15 March 2005). "Tibet part of China: Dalai Lama". The Age. Fairfax. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  5. Reasonable Demands Needed From Dalai Lama
  6. "Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Take Aim at China. Why have both groups turned their attention to Beijing?". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  7. ""Inner Mongolian People's Party" and the basic facts about its key members". Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. Archived from the original on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
  8. "モンゴル自由連盟党". Archived from the original on 26 July 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2010.(JP)
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