Report on Human Rights Situation in Southern Mongolia
Overview from 2014 to 2016
Southern Mongolia Freedom and Democracy Movement Federation
November 10, 2016
ChapterⅠ Overview
Section 1 Since the Chinese Communist Party started to govern Southern Mongolia and its territory after the WWII, Mongolians have been subject to ethnic massacre that can be described as genocide. In order to exterminate the Mongolian culture, at the same time, the Chinese Communist Party has intervened in politics in the aspects of economy, religion, and education and destroyed the Mongolians’ traditional values in disregard of the International Covenants on Human Rights.
Since 2014, Southern Mongolia’s human rights situation has further worsened and numerous human rights infringements remained unchanged. Chinese laws have not protected Mongolians’ human rights but expanded the scope of human rights infringements on the contrary. Chinese so-called policies of reform and openness have achieved nothing for Southern Mongolians. The government keeps falsely arresting local farmers and herdsmen who peacefully lobby for the return of their farmland and pasture land embezzled by companies. Nevertheless, there has been no end to the number of farmers and stock farmers who lobbied and acted for the protection of their legitimate rights. In response to such movement, the police, armed police, and special police once shot them. The Chinese government’s reign of terror over Mongolians, illegal detention, and denial of freedom of association and opinion are impermissible actions in terms of international law.
The Chinese government has reinforced their control and surveillance on Southern Mongolia by using the National Security Bureau, Department of Public Safety, police, armed police, special police, etc. At the same time, they have been monitoring Mongolians’ communication via cell-phones and the Internet in all aspects. Once farmers left their hometown to file a complaint with the higher government, the department of public safety and local police who already knew it would respond to them. Authorities freely wiretap farmers’ cell-phones, controlled local internet communication, and grasped individual farmers’ acts. At the same time, they gave the mayors and secretaries of local villages a “mission” to betray situations to the authorities and prohibited demonstrations and petitions. Therefore, it was highly difficult for external people to know what was happening in Southern Mongolia.
Southern Mongolia significantly contributes to China’s GDP growth. Southern Mongolia’s mineral resources such as coal, rare earths, gold, silver, and gems, energy resources, agricultural products, etc. which are provided for free for economic growth of China’s coastal areas and many development companies are anarchically mining Southern Mongolia’s resources in the name of “for the country,” which is destroying the ecosystem. Southern Mongolia’s GDP increased at a rate of 10% between 2000 and 2010 and it once reached 23%, which propelled Southern Mongolia to the country’s top. However, most tax is not used for Southern Mongolia but seized by the National Tax Bureau. Thus, the Mongolian community cannot receive the profit from the central government’s so-called policies of reform and openness.
In 2014, we established the Southern Mongolia Freedom and Democracy Movement Federation in Japan and had it registered as a general incorporated association to collect and organize materials related to Southern Mongolia’s situations. Besides, we had analyzed data publicly available in China to conduct on-site investigation and have collected information via the Internet etc.
Section 2 Since October 1948, the Chinese government made a communist party group take over the existing administrative organ in the east of Southern Mongolia to carry out a political movement to “crack down counterrevolutionists” and the “Land Reform” movement to arrest Mongolian elites as “landlords/rich farmers” to torture or slaughter them. After that, they carried out the “Socialistic Reform Movement” by 1956 in regions including the west of Southern Mongolia to collectively relocate criminals in the Chinese mainland to Southern Mongolia to create many national farms and ranches to thoroughly plunder Mongolians’ land in the name of “nationalization/collectivization.” As a result, Southern Mongolia’s demographic structure lost its balance. Besides, the Mongolian culture’s traditional nomadic life was destroyed and it became impossible even to move freely.
In 1957, the government carried out the “Anti-Rightist Movement” against Southern Mongolia’s intellectuals to arrest or oppress college professors, elementary and junior-high school teachers, writers, poets, and artists. In 1958, the government carried out the “People’s Commune” movement and “Great Leap Forward” movement to unreasonably reclaim a prairie area unsuitable for farming to drastically reduce the pasture land. As a result, a number of Mongolians died of starvation between 1959 and 1961. At the same time, publicity departments of communist party committees in Southern Mongolia created radio stations, newspaper companies, dance companies, propaganda squads, etc. to propagandize Marxism and Maoism. In this situation, the government carried out the “Four Cleanups Movement” between 1963 and 1964 as preparation for the “Great Cultural Revolution” that begun in 1966.
The Chinese government has not announced the consistent definition and number of victims in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region killed during the Great Cultural Revolution. There is a report that over 346,000 cadremen and people were falsely accused for being members of the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and oppressed in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region during the Great Cultural Revolution and 16,222 of them were killed (Indictment by Special Public Prosecutors Office, Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China). Besides, there was an announced number, namely, over 480,000 people who were falsely accused in 1989 by the means made up by Teng Haiqing and others and those people were labelled as the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party’s new elements.
Thus, empirical research on the Great Cultural Revolution has still not been conducted fully. In particular, investigations at regional, banner, and prefectural levels have not been started yet. In Horqin Right Front Banner in Hinggan League in the east of Southern Mongolia, approx. 10,000 Mongolians were labelled as members of the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party and over 500 of them were brutally killed by Han Chinese. There was a fixed view that the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party purely comprised Mongolians only. Therefore, all the Mongolians of the first and third production platoons of the Gui Liu River Authority’s Guangming battalion in the north of the banner were labelled as members of the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party. These two platoons had approx. 500 Mongolian members and over 70% of them were killed. It described in a report covered by a magazine “5.22 News” issued by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Revolutionary Committee on June 19, 1969 during the Great Cultural Revolution. So to speak, it is the number of victims officially admitted by the government of the time.
5.22 News reported that Mongolians were killed by the following barbaric methods: burning them to death in a stove, electrifying them to death, pouring boiling water on the entire body, instilling air into the anus, etc. A historical material on Horqin Left Back Banner shows the following numbers related to people oppressed due to the Great Cultural Revolution. Between December 1968 and May 1969, entire back banner had over 7,000 new members of the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party who were “Ulanfu’s black line,” of which: 3,026 were communists; 978 were cadremen; 3,548 were farmers and stock farmers. In the back banner, there were 11,054 detained innocent people, 2,103 people who were oppressed by cruel punishment, and 834 people who were killed.
ChapterⅡ Chinese Government Itself Violates Constitution
“People’s Autonomous Regions” without Law: The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China mentions autonomy and human rights of so-called ethnic minorities. Ostensibly, therefore, the constitution is not largely different from other modern nation states’ laws. Rather, the Chinese constitution guarantees some rights more powerfully. However, laws actually enforced in ethnic autonomous regions are completely opposite to the constitution.
Let us see some examples. Section 6 of the constitution (Article 112) states “The autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas are the People’s Congresses and people’s governments of autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous counties.” Article 113 states “Representatives elected from ethnic groups in autonomous areas shall assume the positions of the people’s representatives of autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous counties. Otherwise, an adequate number of representatives from other ethnic groups living in the administrative areas shall also assume the positions” and “In the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of an autonomous region, prefecture, or county, members from ethnic groups in the autonomous area shall assume the positions of the director and the deputy director.”
In fact, however, bureaucrats sent from the central government become members of Standing Committees to substantially rule them. Ulanfu, who was a Mongolian, was the secretary of a Mongolian autonomous region committee within China at first. Since he fell from the position in May 1966, Han Chinese had assumed the position of secretary, which remained until the reform and opening-up in the 1980s. The heads of administrative bodies were also occupied by Han Chinese. On the other hand, Mongolian cadremen could take secondary positions only. Although the constitution clearly stated that Mongolians should assume the top positions of administrative bodies, Han Chinese had actually occupied most of the positions of mayors and secretaries of cities and leagues since 2002. Thus, once rural farmers and livestock farmers started a resistance movement for their pasture land and farmland, such Chinese secretaries would command the armed police to clamp down their activities.
Section 6 of the constitution (Article 116) states “The people’s representatives of autonomous areas have the authority to establish autonomous codes and individual codes on the basis of the areas’ political, economic, and cultural characteristics. Autonomous codes and individual codes shall be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress to gain approval therefrom. Being approved, they become effective. That is, autonomous codes and individual codes for autonomous prefectures and counties shall be reported to the Standing Committees of the People’s Congresses of the autonomous regions to gain approval. Being approved, they become effective and are then reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for the record.”
In fact, however, there are hardly autonomous codes for autonomous regions. Rural People’s Congresses completely subordinate themselves to the central government. The Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region still has no code for enforcing the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy or individual code. This violates the Chinese constitution.
Autonomous Regions’ Tax Revenue Is Sent to the Central Government: Section 6 of the constitution (Articles 117 and 118) states “The autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous regions have the authority to administer local government finance. The whole financial income of ethnic autonomous areas belonging to the national financial system is used by the ethnic autonomous bodies” and “The autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas shall manage local economic development and economic projects according to the national plan. In carrying out projects such as resources development and corporate construction in ethnic autonomous areas, the autonomous bodies must consider the ethnic autonomous regions’ profit.” However, the reality proves different. In the Chinese administrative system, the relationship between the central government’s Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation can be compared to the relationship between autonomous regions’ financial bureaus and local tax bureaus, which can be described as being in the relationship between a boss and the subordinate. The central government’s budget contains budget for ethnic regions. Therefore, the central government’s Ministry of Finance takes control of financial income of local tax bureaus of ethnic autonomous regions. Ethnic autonomous regions have considerably many state enterprises and most resource development companies are state owned enterprises. Profit from major resource development companies in the fields of oil, coal, natural gas, real estate, etc. and profit from major companies in the fields of banking, markets, railroads, postal services, communications, etc. are dealt with not as local governments’ financial income but as the central government’s financial income. In particular, as a result of tax reform since 1997, ethnic autonomous areas are supposed to send over half of local financial income to national taxation bureaus separately from local taxation bureaus.
Mongolians without Voting Rights: The revised version of the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy” has many provisions related to ethnic minorities’ political rights. Its preface states “Implementation of regional autonomy by ethnic minorities plays a large role in encouraging people from ethnic groups to become the nation’s sovereigns, developing socialistic ethnic relations for equality, union, and mutual aid among ethnic groups, solidifying unification of the nation, and facilitating progress of socialism in ethnic autonomous areas and other regions of the nation.” Thus, the law allows both ethnic minorities and Han Chinese to equally elect a certain number of representatives for the National People’s Congress to participate in politics. Article 16 of the law states “The People’s Congress of an ethnic minority autonomous area must have a certain adequate number of representatives except those from ethnic groups in the ethnic minority autonomous area even if they are from other ethnic groups, especially ethnic minorities, in the administrative region.” Besides, Article 17 of the Law on Ethnic Minorities established for ethnic groups with small population states “The positions of the presidents of ethnic minority autonomous areas, the prefectural commissioners of autonomous prefectures, and the magistrates of autonomous counties shall be assumed by citizens from ethnic minorities in ethnic autonomous areas and the positions of the directors and deputy directors of Standing Committees of People’s Congresses of ethnic autonomous areas should be assumed by citizens from ethnic minorities in the ethnic autonomous areas.” In reality, however, “people” do not elect people’s representatives. That is, both Han Chinese and Mongolians having no option but to vote persons designated beforehand by their superiors.
Chinese Government Holds Economic Development Rights: Regarding securing the economic interests of ethnic autonomous regions, Articles 27 and 28 of the law on autonomy states “The autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas shall secure rights to own and use the grasslands and forests in the autonomous areas. According to laws and a unified national plan, the autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas shall reasonably and preferentially develop and use natural resources that they can develop.” In reality, however, the central government holds any power to develop resources, and therefore, so-called state enterprises develop resources while autonomous governments have no power to develop.
Mongolians Have No Right to Receive Education on Their Ethnic History: The law on autonomy guarantees ethnic minorities’ rights related to manners, customs, languages, characters, religions, etc. Article 21 stipulates “In execution of official duty, the autonomous body of an ethnic autonomous region shall use at once one or several languages and character sets used in the region according to provisions of the region’s autonomous code. Such languages and character sets shall be mainly those of ethnic groups engaging in autonomy in the region.” Article 11 stipulates “The autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas shall respect and protect ethnic minorities’ freedom of religion and guarantee any their legitimate normal religious activities according to provisions of the Constitution and laws.” Besides, the law stipulates that the central government shall aid ethnic autonomous regions to spread nine-year compulsory education and develop various educational projects. Furthermore, the law clearly states “The central government shall establish ethnic universities, faculties of ethnic studies, etc. and recruit ethnic minority students; when universities and middle special schools recruit students, they shall make special consideration of application requirements and conditions for ethnic minority applicants and shall make special consideration of applicants from ethnic minorities with especially small populations.”
In reality, however, since 1949, freedom of religion has been lost; numerous temples have been destroyed; many lamas have been killed. Since 1998, elementary and junior-high schools in rural areas have been merged. As a result, little students have to leave their home to go to schools several kilometers to several dozen kilometers away from their homes. There is no textbook for Mongolian history in textbooks for schools ranging from elementary schools to universities. Besides, Mongolians have no right to create their history textbooks. Furthermore, the government does not allow Mongolians to hold a festival to celebrate their hero and ancestor Genghis Khan. The government forces any schools to use nationally-standardized textbooks created by the government.
Mongolians Cannot Be Cadremen of Autonomous Regions: The law on autonomy clearly stipulates that autonomous bodies shall foster ethnic minority cadremen and technological human resources. Article 22 of the law stipulates that the autonomous bodies of ethnic autonomous areas shall educate the regions’ ethnic minorities to foster many cadremen, professional human resources in the fields of technologies and business management, and technical experts to make them fully exercise their roles in response to demands of progress of socialism. In particular, the law clearly stipulates that the autonomous bodies shall educate female ethnic minorities to foster cadremen and various professional human resources. Besides, the law clearly stipulates that the autonomous bodies shall preferentially employ ethnic minorities when employing staff. Furthermore, the law has a new provision related to ethnic autonomous areas’ foreign trade and investment. It is an addition to the law revised in 2001. Nevertheless, only communist party members can be ethnic cadremen, which means that only those who have a strong communist ideology can be ethnic cadremen.
Regulation of Speech
Section 1 Regulation of Speech and Mass Media Controlled by Government
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and China Writers’ Association Since Southern Mongolia became the so-called Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, all the mass media in the region have lost their independence to be publicity organs for the communist party. At the same time, such mass media have served as organs that deprive Mongolians of freedom of speech and rights to know and that carry out an obscurantist policy directed to Mongolians. On July 19, 1949, the Chinese Communist Party established the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC), and at the same time, they established the Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA) on July 23, 1949 to control writers, entertainers, and poets in China to make them propagandize communist ideology to brainwash people and deprive them of freedom of speech. In Southern Mongolia, the Chinese Communist Party established the Inner Mongolia Federation of Literary and Art Circles (INM F L A C) in October 1954 and established the Inner Mongolia Lodge of the Chinese Writers’ Association in December 1956 to control all Mongolian intellectuals including writers, entertainers, and poets to propagandize communist ideology in the Mongolian society to brainwash them.
Currently, CFLAC includes over 52 major organizations and 32 other organizations that belong respectively to provinces, autonomous regions, and direct-controlled municipalities. In addition, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has Production Corps Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Coal Mine Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Railway Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Petroleum Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Chemical Industrial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Electrical Power Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Water Conservancy Federation of Literary and Art Circles, etc. The Inner Mongolia Federation of Literary and Art Circles is one of them. In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it has 11,000 members and CFLAC has 1,547 members. In the region, the Inner Mongolia Lodge of the Chinese Writers’ Association has 1,361 members and CWA has 191 members. They occupy all mass media’s speech to propagandize the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology, policies, etc. as their guiding thoughts, which excludes works focusing on Mongolian culture and Mongolian identity. Needless to say, most of their members are Mongolians. However, their occupations, salaries, thoughts, ideals, motivations, etc. are entirely controlled by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Furthermore, CWA, which is a lower organization of CFLAC, established the Chinese Minority Writers’ Society in 1985.
CFLAC, CWA, and the Chinese Minority Writers’ Society each have translated literary works, artistic plays, etc. written by Han Chinese writers into ethnic minorities’ languages to introduce or publicize them to encourage ethnic minority writers and entertainers to write and produce works in Chinese. At the same time, these organizations have translated works written by ethnic minority writers into Chinese and given various prizes to the writers to encourage ethnic minority writers and entertainers to write or perform works in Chinese in competition with each other. Thus, these organizations have encouraged ethnic minorities not to write works in their mother languages but to write works in Chinese so that they can assimilate into Han Chinese. Another goal of these organizations is to control the Mongolian society’s ideology by controlling all intellectuals’ thoughts.
As these organizations’ common point, their doctrines and regulations are made thoroughly under the policy stating that this organization adopts the three representative important thoughts Marxism, Maoism, and Tengism as our guiding principles to carry out the party’s basic policies. Literature and art must serve socialism. In addition, their doctrines and charters clearly state “This organization is a bridge for the party and the government to connect ethnic minority writers and literary circles.” All the members of these organizations are not allowed to freely write works with their individual free ideas. Article 3 of rules of the Chinese Minority Writers’ Society stipulates that as a fundamental rule, any activities of the society shall observe the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Members shall positively engage in activities according to cultural features in compliance with national laws and regulations. As for their mission, the rules state “The society’s mission is to cultivate writers and artists from fellow ethnic groups with respect for the traditions and features of literature and art of fellow ethnic groups. The society shall make efforts to strengthen union in the entertainment industry and solidify the intimate relationships between the party and writers or artists who are not members of the party.” In fact, this means recruiting young people to brainwash them. More precisely, Article 1 of Chapter 1 of the Chinese constitution states “The socialistic system is China’s fundamental system and any organizations and individuals are not allowed to destroy it.” That is, if writers and those who belong to the entertainment industry cannot write works based on communist ideology, it follows that they violate the law. Article 24 of the constitution clearly stipulates “The state advocates the civic virtues of love for the motherland, for the people, for labor, for science and for socialism; it educates the people in patriotism, collectivism, internationalism and communism and in dialectical and historical materialism; it combats the decadent ideas of capitalism and feudalism and other decadent ideas.” As these organizations’ concrete mission, they make members create works in compliance with the rule and hold various study sessions and discussion sessions with writers or entertainers in addition to academic conferences, round-table talks, educational conferences, etc. to teach members the guiding thoughts from the Publicity Department. Members who positively participate in such activities receive prizes, become famous, and have a chance to appear on mass media. On the other hand, those who do not obey cannot exhibit their works on magazines, Internet, newspapers, and TV no matter how hard they work or create excellent works. In contrast, if members obey the guiding thoughts of the Publicity Department, they can receive all benefits including promotion in rank and salary raise.
As its lower organizations, the Inner Mongolia Federation of Literary and Art Circles has the following 13 organizations: Inner Mongolia Writers’ Association, Inner Mongolia Theater Association, Inner Mongolia Art Association, Inner Mongolia Musicians’ Association, Inner Mongolia Dancers’ Association, Inner Mongolia Folk Literature and Art Association, Inner Mongolia Photographers’ Association, Inner Mongolia Film Association, Inner Mongolia Calligraphers’ Association, Inner Mongolia Acrobatic Association, Inner Mongolia Performing Art Association, Inner Mongolia Television Artists’ Association, and Inner Mongolia Employees’ Federation of Literary and Art Circles. These organizations form a network for taking control of thoughts and mind. Also, there are: Literary Theory Lab, Monthly Magazine Grasslands Editorial Office, Monthly Magazine Field of Flowers Editorial Office, art museum, and magazines Great Poet in Grasslands, World Literature Collection, Key of Gold, etc. Needless to say, each organization has the party’s chapter. Article 7 of regulations of the Inner Mongolia Federation of Literary and Art Circles states “The federation shall positively built relationship with the literary and art circles, the party, the government, and other various quarters and closely cooperate with the government’s cultural and artistic administration authorities. The federation shall strengthen unity between the party and writers/artists who are not members of the party, artists of any age, and writers/artists from ethnic groups. The federation shall strengthen association with other federations of literary and art circles in sister provinces, cities, and autonomous regions. The federation shall strengthen association with foreign fellow literary organizations and writers in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan to display the Chinese race’s excellent culture to focus energy on a great enterprise, the unification of the homeland.” Thus, the federation has controlled thoughts of Mongolian writers and entertainers to deprive them of their creative thoughts and independence.
Theatrical Organization Olaan-Muchir In order to destroy Mongolian traditional culture, Olaan-Muchir has changed Mongolian ethnic music, folk ballads, folk dances, etc. for the worse. In Southern Mongolia, currently, 68 out of 102 publicity departments of banner and county governments have an Olaan-Muchir group or a theatrical organization, whose members all receive salary equivalent to national public officials’. Each of leagues, cities, banners, and counties has a handsome movie theater, where Olaan-Muchir appears on the stage to instill socialism and communist ideology in people. Olaan-Muchir is a single organization in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and has multiple groups that belong respectively to the region’s lower administrative units such as leagues, cities, and banners. They are administered by federations of literary and art circles belonging respectively to governments at different administration levels. The publicity departments of the party’s committees at different administration levels periodically instill the guiding thoughts in the federations.
In 1957, the Chinese Communist Party carried out the Anti-Rightist Movement and the People’s Commune Movement in Southern Mongolia. At the same time, in order to transform Mongolian traditional culture into communist culture, they established a literary publicity organization Olaan-Muchir in rural areas. Olaan-Muchir means a “red cultural project organization,” which is an organization to propagandize the communist revolutionary thought toward nomads. Today, there are over 2,000 Olaan-Muchir officials in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Olaan-Muchir performs 120 shows every year. In recent three years, they performed 8,600 shows to propagandize in banners and villages all around the autonomous region. There are still an Olaan-Muchir Seminar and an Olaan-Muchir Training Center, where they recruit talented young Mongolians to teach them arts celebrating socialism and the communist party. The Chinese Communist Party uses these organizations as tools to destroy Mongolian culture. Olaan-Muchir has control of the way for young people around the region to become artists in order to brainwash them into communism.
TV Stations, Radio Stations, and Internet Media Propagandizing Communist Party’s Policies
Inner Mongolia Radio Television Internet Corp. Ltd. has 98 subsidiaries and over 4,000 employees and broadcasts 179 TV programs and 10 radio programs for propagandizing the communist party’s policies and ideology toward leagues, cities, counties, and banners via optical communication lines. Inner Mongolia Television was established in 1960 and had been broadcasting propaganda programs in Mongolian since 1997. The station has over 1,200 officials and they receive salary equivalent to public officials. Currently, the station broadcasts propaganda programs toward 51 countries including Mongolia and Russia in addition to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Inner Mongolia Daily is a daily newspaper company operated by the Publicity Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Committee in China. Although it is operated as a company, its all officials’ salary is the same as that of public officials and is paid by the government. Its company profile states “Inner Mongolia Daily adopts Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, and Tengism as our main operation principles to publicize the party’s line and policies. Our registered fund is 67,610,000 yuan.” Inner Mongolia People’s Radio Station was established in July 1950 and is a large radio station broadcasting in China and Mongolia. In 2002, they created a branch station in Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia, to propagandize socialistic ideology in Mongolia. They also conduct stereo broadcasting in addition to middle-wave and short-wave broadcasting to propagandize the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. They broadcast for a total of 109.15 hours per day toward only 53 countries and regions around China. In addition to the radio and TV stations, leagues, cities, counties, and banners each have a radio station and a TV station to spread a large volume of propaganda programs all around Southern Mongolia.
In addition to these propaganda organs, other media are broadcasting propaganda on the Internet and toward cell-phones to deprive Mongolians of their rights to know. Mongolians are entirely prohibited from creating personal magazines, homepages, publishing companies, etc.
Educational Inequality for Mongolians:
In Southern Mongolia, all of schools ranging from elementary schools to universities are using Mongolian version nationally-standardized textbooks edited by the Chinese government. These textbooks do not mention Mongolian culture. Moreover, only more than a dozen pages of history textbooks describe the Yuan Dynasty Period created by Mongolians as part of Chinese history. A textbook titled “Civics and Thoughts” describes patriotism, socialism, and communist ideology as its main contents.
Schools in villages were already merged. Therefore, children have to go to kindergartens or elementary schools in Sumus or banners several kilometers to several dozen kilometers away from their homes. Thus, parents and children get separated, so that children feel isolation due to lack of love. In addition, those kindergartens and elementary schools are starting points for instilling patriotism in children and brainwashing them into Chinese identity and socialistic ideology.
Elementary schools, junior-high schools, and high schools for Mongolians make students watch movies and drama related to the anti-Japanese war in each class and hold poetry contests, speech contests, and balls related to the anti-Japanese war. Besides, teacher groups also create “anti-Japanese” songs and dances to teach students and children them as demonstration. Since schools had no rights to carry out such propaganda activities, all the activities have been thoroughly spread even to rural schools via official documents reflecting the guiding thoughts of the party’s committee and the publicity department in the autonomous region. The principals and teachers must embody the spirits of the official documents. If they do not obey the official documents and what is decided in conferences at higher organs (education bureaus), they will be punished. Education bureaus at different administration levels put informants among teachers of Mongolian schools at different administration levels to monitor movements in the schools.
Similarly, the education bureaus select students from each class as informants at universities and graduate schools with many Mongolian students to watch teachers’ speech and movements. Each university faculty has a party chapter secretary and a communist youth league chapter secretary. They check students’ personal information to select one or two students from poor families from each class as positive elements to cultivate them as party members. Selected students are on a mission to betray speech and movements in their classes and those of teachers to faculty secretaries and communist youth league secretaries. Such selected students receive 200-300 yuan per month as poverty benefits. Moreover, student party members are obliged to betray information. This not only deprives Mongolian students of their basic human rights but also destroys their unity and develops hate and contradiction among them to hinder the birth and growth of intellectuals. This culture of the party cultivating informants remains in schools ranging from elementary schools to universities and not a few university teachers are informants. This education destroying basic human rights has been conducted to the present.
A Mongolian cannot become a top senior official in the autonomous area: “Autonomous Law” clearly stipulates that the role of an autonomous body is to develop ethnic minority top senior officials and human resources to engage in science technology. Article 22 of such law says, “In line with the demand for the building of a social state, an autonomous body of the ethnic minority autonomous region should sufficiently fulfill its role by, with involving in ethnic minorities, developing many top senior officials in respective levels as well as engineers and professionals to engage in a wide range of science technologies, business managements, etc.” This Article also particularly states that ethnic minority women should be developed and promoted to top senior officials in respective levels and that when an employee is being hired, ethnic minorities are given a higher priority. In addition, a new stipulation regarding the implementation of foreign trades and investments in ethnic autonomous regions has been added to the Autonomous Law. Such stipulation includes a stipulation which was added to the law when it was amended in 2001 says that a person who is to become one of the ethnic high-ranking officers group must be a member of the communist party and be strongly influenced by communist ideologies.
Chapter Ⅲ Actual Status of Crackdown on Mongolians
Regulation on Speech
Section 1 Current States of Freedom of Speech and Control Over Mass Media
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) & Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA)
After Southern Mongolia region fell under the control of the Chinese Communist Party and became so-called Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, all mass media in such region have been robbed of their independence and become no more than propaganda machines of it. Meanwhile, such media were transformed to the kind of organizations robbing Mongolians of their freedom of speech and right to know as well as providing social ochlocratic educations to Mongolians. On July 19, 1949, the Chinese Communist Party created “China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC)” and successively established “Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA)” on July 23, 1949, through the members of which the Chinese Communist Party has controlled writers, cultural figures and poets; instilled the communist ideology; brainwashed people; and robbed their freedom of speech. Further, in Southern Mongolia region, the Chinese Communist Party started “Inner Mongolia Federation Of Literary And Art Circle (INMFLAC)” in October 1954 and consecutively set up “Mongol Branch of Chinese Writers’ Association (INMCWA)” in December 1954, well utilizing which organizations it indoctrinated Mongolian societies to accept the ideologies of communists by manipulating all intellectuals such as writers, cultural figures and poets to popularizes such ideologies.
Currently, in addition to 52 large-sized organizations belonging to “National FLAC”, it exists an organization in 32 provinces, autonomous areas and municipalities respectively. Moreover, in Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region, there are Production Corps FLAC, China Coal Mine FLAC, China Railway FLAC, China Oil FLAC, China Chemical Engineering FLAC, China Electrical Power FLAC, China Hydraulic Power FLAC, etc. “INMFLAC” is one of them. Only within the area of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Southern Mongolia areas, 11,000 people are the members of “INMFLAC” and 1,547 people belong to “CFLAC”; “INMWA” has 1,361 members and “CWA” holds 191 members. These groups take control of the speech of all mass media and, with using such media as a platform, make propaganda for ideas, policies and doctrines of the Chinese Communist Party as the basic thoughts. On the other hand, a piece of work that mainly deals with Mongol cultures and identities is to be excluded. Almost all members of these groups are naturally Mongolians but all aspects of their lives including their careers, salaries, ideas, dreams and motivations are in the hands of the publicity department of the Chinese Communist Party. Further, “CWA”, a subsidiary organization of “CFLAC”, launched “Chinese Minority Writers’ Society” in 1985.
Whether it is “FLAC”, “WA” or “Chinese Minority Writers’ Society”, such organization has been translating literary works and art drama created by Han Chinese writers into the language of so-called an ethnic minority and, by introducing and propagandizing such works, etc., encouraging writers and performing artists of an ethnic minority to write and stage a work, etc. in Chinese language. Likewise, those organizations have encouraged all writers and cultural figures of the respective ethnic minorities to compete each other and to write in Chinese language by preparing the Chinese version of ethnic minority writers’ works and giving a variety of awards to them. In these ways, they have been trying to assimilate the writers, etc. of respective ethnic minorities with encouraging them to write in Chinese language, instead of writing mainly in their respective native languages. Another purpose of these organizations is to have all the intellectuals control the ideologies of Mongolian societies by initially controlling their ideas.
The doctrine common to such organizations is represented by the following remark stipulated in their respective bylaws: “This organization will execute the fundamental policies of the Chinese Communist Party based on the understanding that the organization’s basic principles are the three important leading ideas: Marxism, Maoism and Deng Xiaoping Theory. Literatures and arts should serve for socialism.” Also, all of such bylaws have a stipulation clearly saying, “This organization is a bridge where the authors and the writers of the ethnic minorities are brought together by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government. However, any member belonging to these organizations is prohibited to write a piece of work from his/her own free will. Article 3 of the bylaw of “Chinese Minority Writers’ Society” says, “All activities of Chinese Minority Writers’ Society will be conducted pursuant primary to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and be proactively developed in accordance with concerning laws and regulations of the country as well as relevant cultures and civilizations.” Moreover, as “missions” of those organizations, it says, “This organization is to respect the traditions and characteristics of the literatures and arts of each brotherly ethnic group.” and “This organization is to seek to strengthen the unity of the world of art and culture and to solidify the relationships between the writers and artists belonging to the Chinese Communist Party and those do not.” In reality, however, the purpose of such organizations is to lure young people into them for brainwashing. Taking a closer look, Article 1 of Chapter of Constitution of the People’s Republic of China says, “The socialist system is the basic system of the People’s Republic of China. Sabotage of the socialist system by any organization or individual is prohibited.” Unless writers and those in the world of arts and cultures write a piece of work containing the ideas around socialism and communism ideologies, they will be considered to be “against the law”. Also, Article 24 of the constitution clearly says, “The state advocates the civic virtues of love for the motherland, for the people, for science and for socialism; it educates the people in patriotism, collectivism, internationalism and communism and in dialectical and historical materialism; it combats the decadent ideas of capitalism and feudalism and other decadent ideas.” Specific missions of the members of these organizations are, while creating a piece of work according to their own rules, to organize a variety of study meetings and discussion sessions with inviting writers and cultural figures and also to have such writers, etc. take lessons from the publicity department on the China’s basic ideas at academic conferences, round-table talks, educational conferences and other meetings that they host. Those who are willing to participate in such activities are to be awarded, to achieve fame and to have a chance of winning coverage in mass media. In contrast, those who don’t take part in those activities are not to be given an opportunity to deliver their ideas, etc. via a magazine, internet, newspaper or television even though they work hard and write up a good piece of work. However, once a member of those organizations follows the basic ideas given by the publicity department, he/she will receive a kind of benefits including the raisings of his/her status and salary.
“INMLAC” has 13 subordinate associations: INMWA, Inner Mongolia Drama Association, Inner Mongolia Art Association, Inner Mongolia Musician Association, Inner Mongolia Dancers Association, Inner Mongolia Private Writers Association, Inner Mongolia Photographers Association, Inner Mongolia Movie Association, Inner Mongolia Calligraphers Association, Inner Mongolia Performing Arts Association, Inner Mongolia Acrobatics Association, Inner Mongolia Television People Association, and Inner Mongolia Officers FLAC. These associations, etc. constitute a network that controls people’s ideas and minds in all societies. In addition, there exist the literary theory studies Institution and art museums as well as several editorial institutions that publish respective magazines including monthly “Grass Lands”, monthly “Wildlands with Flower”, “Great Poet in Grass Lands”, “Collection of Translated World Literature” and “Gold Key”, all of which institutions , not surprisingly, have a local chapter of the Party.
Article 7 of the bylaw of “INMFLAC” says, “INMFLAC is to help develop communications between a group of the literature world and the art world and a group of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and various fields in the society and also to closely cooperate with the culture and art supervising agencies of the Chinese government. INMFLAC is to contribute to an intensification of unity between the Chinese Communist Party and the writers or artists who are not members of the Chinese Communist Party; old-aged, middle-aged and young artists; and the writers and artists of respective ethnic groups. INMFLAC is to enhance intercommunications with FLACs in brotherly provinces, cities and autonomous regions. INMFLAC is to make a contribution to the great achievement of the unification of our homeland by strengthening intercommunications with literary and art bodies as well as writers or artists that are our patriots in overseas regions such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and by enhancing the excellent cultures of Chinese people.” INMFLAC has been controlling the ideas of Mongolian writers and those engaging in arts and cultures, and robbing their creative minds and independency.
Wulanmuqi (Fork Art Organization)
The contents of Mongolian fork music, fork songs, fork dances, etc. have been changed for the worse for the destruction of Mongolian traditional cultures. As of today, in Southern Mongolia, it exists 102 publicity departments in banners, provinces and governments as well as 68 wulanmuqis and fork art organizations, all of which members receive a salary equivalent to that of a government official. Each league, city, banner and province has a handsome movie theater where a wulanmuqi appears on the stage and indoctrinates the people with socialism and communism ideologies. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has one wulanmuqi and all of the autonomous region’s subordinate leagues, citis and banners have one wulanmuqi respectively. The organization that manages these wulanmuqi is a FLAC belonging to respective governments, and the publicity department of a party committee of each level periodically instills the basic ideas into the FLAC.
In 1957, the Chinese Communist Party pursued the anti-rightist movement and the pro-people’s commune movement in Southern Mongolia region and concurrently launched a wulanmuqi, fork art publicity organization, in rural areas in order to transform Mongolian traditional cultures into communism cultures. Wulanmuqi means a “red-colored cultural affairs organization” which is to make propaganda for communist ideas to nomads. Today, there are more than 2,000 officers involved in wulanmuqi activities, and 120 stage performances are given a year in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In these 3 years, they have provided 8,600 performances and made propaganda in banners and villages of all autonomous regions. There still exist “Wulanmuqi Research Institute” and “Wulanmuqi Training Center” which assemble talented young Mongolians and teach them art activities admiring socialism and the Chinese Communist Party. Using these organizations as a platform, they destroy Mongolian cultures. A young person born and brought up in any region has to go through a wulanmuqi to become an artist and he/she is to be brainwashed there into believing in communism.
TV Stations, Radio Stations and Internets Spreading Policies of Chinese Communist Party
Inner Mongolia Radio, Television and Internet Limited Company, with 98 subsidiaries and over 4,000 employees, broadcasts contents making propaganda for policies and ideologies of the Chinese Communist Party to respective leagues and cities as well as provinces and banners, through the airwaves of 179 television programs and 10 radio programs. Inner Mongolia Television was established in 1960 and started to give publicity and broadcast in Mongolian language since 1997. It has over 1,200 officers who receive the same amount of salary as that for a civil servant. As of now, it gives publicity and broadcasts, besides Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to 51 countries including Mongol and Russia. Inner Mongolia Daily is a daily newspaper publisher controlled by the publicity department of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Although this publisher exists as a “company”, the salaries of all its officers are, as is the case with civil servants, contributed from the government. Its “Company Profile” says, “The mission of Inner Mongolia Daily is to spread the schemes, doctrines and policies of the Chinese Communist Party based on the understanding that our main philosophies are Marxism, Maoism, Leninism, and Deng Xiaoping Theory.” Inner Mongolia People’s Radio Broadcast Station, established in July 1950, is a large-sized radio station that broadcasts in both Chinese language and Mongolian language. In 2002, this station set up a local branch bureau in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongol, which makes propaganda for socialism ideologies even to Mongolians living in Mongol. The doctrines and policies of the Chinese Communist Party are popularized through stereotype broadcasting in addition to shortwave broad casting and mediumwave broadcasting. Its total broadcasting hours are 109.15 per day, but its service areas remain 53 countries and regions around China. In addition to the said radio stations and TV stations, there are radio stations and TV stations in each league (aimaq) and city as well as each providence and banner, which stations make a massive amount of propaganda extending to every corner of Southern Mongolia.
Besides these publicity organizations, Internets and cellular phones are filled with the propagandas, and a Mongolian’s right to know has been robbed. Mongolians are not allowed to personally produce any magazine, website or publishing company.
Inequality in Education among Mongolians
The textbooks that are used from every elementary and junior high school to university in Southern Mongolia region are the Mongolian version of “nationally unified textbooks” edited by the Chinese government. In such textbooks, there is almost no description touching on Mongolian cultures. In the history textbook as well, the Period of Yuan Dynasty that was built by Mongolians is taught as a part of Chinese history, and only a little more than 10 pages are devoted to it. The textbook of “Civics and Thought” mainly deals with the contents of patriotism, socialism and communism ideologies.
Due to the merger of schools in a village, children have been forced to go to a kindergarten and an elementary school in a cym or a banner which is several to dozens of kilometers away from their houses. Parents have been separated from their children and so does the parents’ affections to their children. Besides, the “patriotism” education has been instilled even into kindergarten children and elementary school students, and they have been brainwashed by Chinese identities and socialism ideologies. In all Mongolian elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools, a movie or a drama on the theme of “Anti-Japanese War” is shown to all students by class, and also poetry & song competitions, speech contests and dance parties are held in relation to “Anti-Japanese War”. Further, teachers themselves gather to complete the songs and dances containing “Anti-Japan” elements and show the students and children such songs and dances as a model performance. A school is not given a right to carry out such propaganda campaigns at its own discretion. Any school activity is to be conducted under the instruction of the party committee and the publicity department in an autonomous region. This instruction based on the “basic ideas” of such organizations and in the form of “official letter” is provided even to every rural school. The school principal of a school and its teachers responsible are obliged to embody the spirits of such “official letter”. If such “official letter” or any meeting outcome of the higher level organization (education department) is not followed, the school principal and the teachers related will be subject to a punishment. The education department in respective levels understands what are going on in a Mongolian school through an “informant” who hides among the teachers of a school in respective levels.
Likewise, as for universities and graduate schools having many Mongolian students, the education department selects an informant by classroom and make him/her check teachers’ words and actions. Each department of a university has a secretary of the local chapter of the Chinese Communist Party and a secretary of the Communist Youth League. They select one or two students by classroom as “promising elements” whose family suffers from poverty after doing a research on their personal information, and cultivate such student as a future party member. A selected student is, as his/her duty, supposed to tip off the secretary in the department and the secretary of the Communist Youth League about the words, actions and behaviors of the students and teachers in his/her classroom. Then, such student is to receive a monthly salary of 200 to 300 hundred Yuan under the name of “poverty reduction support”. A student becoming a party member is, as his/her responsibility, obliged to make a tip-off, which, while robbing Mongolian students of their fundamental human rights, ruins the unity among Mongolians, nourishes a feeling of hatred and disharmonies among Mongolian students, and consequently prevents Mongolian intellectuals from being born and grown. This “party’s culture” where such informants are cultivated has already penetrated into from elementary schools to universities, and there are not a few informants even among college teachers. Such kind of education system fundamentally violating human rights has been succeeded to the present.
Chapter Ⅳ Actual Examples of Crackdown on Hada
Hada is a Mongolian who was born on November 29, 1959 in Horchin Right Wing Front Banner, Hinggan League (Hinggan, former Manchukuo), Southern Mongolia. He entered Mongolian Language & Literature Department, Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities (currently Inner Mongolia University For The Nationalities) in 1979 and graduated in 1983 with receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree. After graduating, he started working for, with using Mongolian language, Political Theory Editorial Office in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People’s Publishing Company. He wrote up a political paper there and received the Research Achievement Award in History of Western Philosophy. In 1986, Hada advanced to the master’s program in political education of Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities where he engaged in a research on Marxism and obtained his master’s degree in political education in 1989. In October, he and his wife started running a Mongolian studies bookstore named “Mongol sodlol bichigiin horoo” with receiving the permission and praise from authorities. In December 1995, “Guang Ming Daily”, an official journal of China, offered a compliment to his book store in the article by calling it “House of Mongolian Studies”.
At that time, anti-socialism and anti-communism movements as well as independence and self-determination movements became active in former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and a campaign for freedom and democracy came to arise one after another within China. With this historic background, Hada and Tegexi, his classmate at the graduate school of Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities, launched “Mongolian Culture Rescue Committee” and later renamed it as “Mongolian Culture Enlightenment Committee”. At its first central meeting on May 25, 1992, “Mongolian Culture Enlightenment Committee” was renamed again as “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance” and Hada was elected as the chairman. At its second central meeting on September 4, 1994, Hada was reelected as the chairman, and Tegexi, who by then was an officer at the foreign affairs office of the people’s government, was elected as the vice-chairman. And then, Hada edited a magazine titled “The Voice of Southern Mongolia”, through which he published a lot of articles. Also, Hada went on to write a book named “The Way Out for Southern Mongolia” in which he described and condemned decades of Southern Mongolia’s history and current status under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, including the harms caused by political actions and multiple policies successively exercised by the authorities such as the immigration policy (the relocation of Han Chinese to Mongolian regions) and the “birth control” policy for decreasing the population of Mongolians. Hada appealed for Mongolians to protect their human rights under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, and aimed “to establish a genuine Mongolian Autonomous Country with taking over an area of Inner Mongolia’s 1,180,000 ㎢ of land and to ultimately and thoroughly overturn ruling Han Chinese’ cruel domination by decisively and uncompromisingly struggling against them.
On August 23, 1995, “Southern Mongolian Democracy Alliance” held its third meeting and resolved an amendment of the bylaw saying, “This Alliance is a secret organization with the aim to opposing Han Chinese colonial ruling and fighting for the realization of self-determination, freedom and democracy in Southern Mongolia. The short-term goal is to peacefully establish the Southern Mongolia Democratic Autonomous Country in a part of Inner Mongolia and the long-term goal is to merge with Mongol.” Hada was reelected as the chairman and appointed Tegexi as the publicity director. At that time, main members including Tegexi, Heilong, Huuchinhu, Xinna, and Borjigin Kanayama played an active role and they launched “Politics Training School Class” by which politicians in Southern Mongolia is to be developed.
After undergoing three times of learning periods in the first half and the second half respectively, this class completed a book titled “Words to Brothers in Southern Mongolia”. They made a proposal to the Government of the Chinese Communist Party regarding the implementation of the “advanced autonomous system in Southern Mongolia Region” and organized protests in a peaceful and non-violent manner. The said advanced autonomous system is similar to “One Country, Two Systems” that the Chinese Communist Party was trying to apply to the regions including Hong Kong. They planned to start mainly with the areas in which Mongolians were concentrated such as Hulunbuir League, Hinggan League, Jirim League, Jo-Uda League (Chifeng City), Xilingol League and Ordos League (Ordos City), and, if this became successful, they intended to apply such system to other areas. Meanwhile, in light of the reality that this autonomous region is within the framework of People’s Republic of China, they just aimed for an advanced, regional and ethnic autonomous system while accepting the condition that Chinese government would take control of areas and functions such as territorial land, territorial air, diplomacy and military affairs. In winter 1995, Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance organized a strike consisting mainly of Mongolian teachers and students of the universities and colleges in Hohhot City, and leaded several demonstrations claiming the implementation of the Mongolians’ rights under the constitution and the enactment of a basic law granting genuine autonomy to Inner Mongolia. The authorities suppressed these demonstrations using military force.
Around 8 p.m. on December 10, 1995, public security police from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region illegally broke into “Mongol sodlol bichigiin horoo” and Hada’s residence, took in Hada and dozens of its members, and tortured them in the course of interrogation. Simultaneously, state security battalion (SSB) from the Public Security Agency of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region unlawfully invaded the members’ houses, confiscated vast amounts of materials and documents, and interrogated such members in a harsher way with using the confiscated materials, etc. as “incriminating statement”. Hada was officially arrested on March 9, 1996. On August 19, the Hohhot City People’s Procurator’s Office indicted Hada and Tegexi as the accused on charges including of “conspiring to subvert the government, splitting the nation, providing intelligence for the enemy, and organizing a counterrevolutionary group”. The Hohhot Intermediate People’s Court conducted a trial privately and, on November 11, 1996, found Hada and Tegexi guilty of groundless crimes including “spying”, “conspiring to subvert the nation and government” and “possessing an idea of separatism”. Hada and Tegexi were sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment and 10 years of imprisonment respectively, and went to jail. On December 26, 1996, the Supreme People’s Court of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region rejected appeals filed by Hada and Tegexi and upheld the judgements rendered by the Intermediate People’s Court. Hada was confined in the Inner Mongolia No. 4 Prison in Chi Feng where he suffered inhumane treatments such as physical abuses and tortures on the ground of “refusal to admit guilt”. Meanwhile, Tegexi enjoyed a 3 years’ reduction of his sentence for “acceptance of guilt and good behavior” and was released in December 2002.
During the period from October 1995 to the end of January 1996, SSB from the Public Security Agency of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region broke into the residences of Hada and Hass, elder brother of Hada’s wife, interrogated them, and confiscated their properties. On May 8 in the same year, the Public Security Agency shut down “Mongol sodlol bichigiin horoo” and seized all its properties on the ground of “contact with a foreign force”. Concurrently, the authorities arrested Uiles, Hada’s son, who then attended the junior high school attached to Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities, for a made-up crime of “robbing other students’ money” and sent him to a jail. Likewise, Inna, Hada’ wife, was arrested for “engaging in illegal business” and put into the jail. Since then, Uiles and Xinna have been forced to spend a restricted life where they repeat a cycle of arrest, imprisonment and release. Xinna wrote a letter pleading their innocence to influential bodies and figures including American Congress, European Parliament, human rights organizations, mass media, Chinese National People’ Congress, Chinese State Ethnic Affairs Commission, (Former) President Hu Jintao, (Former) Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, President Xi Jinping and President Obama, which, however, resulted in almost sterile efforts.
Organizations including Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (USA), Southern Mongolian Human Rights Protection Alliance (Europe), Inner Mongolian People’s Party, Mongolian Liberal Union Party (Japan), Southern Mongolia Freedom and Democracy Movement Foundation (Japan), all of which are organizations leaded by Southern Mongolians overseas, have been severely criticizing the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government and also calling on the whole world to know about false accusations against Hada, inhumane oppressions against his family members, and persecutions of Huuchinhu who is one of the main members of Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance.
Hada’s unfair sentence was supposed to finish on December 10, 2012, but, instead, the authorities locked him up in a secret location in Hohhot and even robbed him of his freedom to meet his family members. Until today, Hada has virtually been under the supervision of the authorities. Hada is reported to be suffering from ulcerative gastritis, coronary heart disease, depression and other diseases, and is mentally very unstable.
The main reason for the authorities to have been torturing and confining Hada is that he has been firmly alleging, “I have never violated any Chinese law nor committed any crime.” In other words, such tortures, etc. on Hada are because the authorities cannot help admitting that they falsely accused him unless he admits his guilt and also because the Chinese Communist Party will never be able to forgive him for having engaged in political activities supporting Mongolians’ rights to self-determination and freedom. In particular, an assertion that Mongolians should govern their own lands and become independent from Han Chinese in every aspect including the resources is impossible to be accepted by Han Chinese in light of their cultures worshipping money and believing Sinocentrism. Whether you are Mongolian, Uighur or Tibetan, the Chinese Communist Party that places the highest priority on Han Chinese’s interests will never allow you to appeal for your own ethnicity’s interests.
Hada is a symbol of 60 years of unjustifiable rule over Southern Mongolia by the Chinese government, and therefore he became a distraction for Chinese government that intended to implement the “Reform and Open-Door” policy and make propaganda for economic growth achievements in China which had caught the world’s attention. Otherwise phrased, Hada was deemed to be an embarrassing and unacceptable “dark spot” for the government because his existence clearly showed the fact that the ethnic section autonomous system and the ethnic minority policies promoted by the government were failing. These are the true reasons why the Chinese Communist Party has been taking away the freedom of Hada. Further, the Chinese Communist Party intends to implant a sense of fear in Mongolian societies that any Mongolian would face the same fate as Hada’s if he/she resists, denies or refuses an instruction from the Chinese Communist Party. They say as well that the Chinese Communist Party has been taking a strong posture against Hada since he has a chance of becoming the first leader for Mongolians who would have the same charismas as those of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Tibetans and Rabiya Qadir for Uighurs.
Since December 10, 2014, the authorities have been virtually locking up Hada in an apartment in Hohhot and not providing him with freedom to go to a hospital or go see his relatives. His wife and his son, Mr. Uiles, were going to reopen the once-owning bookstore but the authorities didn’t give a permission for that. In January, 2015, Although Southern Mongolians overseas tried to support Hada’s daily lives and disease treatments with raising money, the authorities froze his and his family members’ bank accounts and prohibited them from receiving the remittances from foreign countries.
Chapter Ⅴ Actual Examples of Crackdown on Huuchinhu
Huuchinhu is a teacher and writer who was born in 1954 in Horchin Middle Wing, Jirim Aimaq (Jirim League situated in Hinggan, Manchukuo) in Southern Mongolia. She started to be involved in human rights activities for Mongolians after entering Mongolian Language & Literature Department, Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities (currently Inner Mongolia University For The Nationalities) in October 1978. In 1981, the Chinese government announced a policy, “Document No. 28”, to relocate many Han Chinese farmers to Southern Mongolia. She organized a student movement for protesting against such policy and resisting authorities. Later, she became a member of Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance established by Hada and others, undertook a leadership role responsible for the eastern region of Southern Mongolia, and continued to be involved in political movements. In 1995, she was arrested for participating in a political demonstration with Hada and others. In 1996, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and allowed to go back home under the condition that “she would be subject to surveillance at her home”, where she was given limited freedom and under the surveillance of National Security Bureau. Even later, she made several protests against the authorities and, accordingly, was arrested, detained and further tortured every time.
In 1998, she opposed to a Chinese government’s policy that would reduce the number of Mongolian schools. Further, in protesting and challenging the authorities’ decision to transform “Inner Mongolia Normal Institute for the Nationalities” into a regular institute under a local administrative body, she sought to protect the ethnic interests by secretly organizing a student group and sending a written petition to the central government. As the result, in July 2000, the authorities decided to leave such institute as it was with just changing its name to “Inner Mongolia University For The Nationalities”.
From 2000, she started to demand a right to use one’s own language by writing a letter in Mongolian language to the relevant authorities, suggesting that they should allow people to write an address of a mail in Mongolian language. In addition, Huuchinhu made an effort to spread across Mongolian societies the importance of the protection of Mongolians’ human rights and cultures as well as the conservation of the ecology, but the authorities didn’t grant her a publishing right. After finding publishers in Hong Kong and Mongol which would publish her books at her own expenses, she published over 10,000 copies of 4 books (“Silent Gemstone”, “Brave Elm”, “Stone’s Words” and “Path Length”) one after another, but those copies were forcibly collected by the authorities afterward. However, courageous young Mongolians printed such books and spread them over Mongolian societies. In December 2012, Huuchinhu received “Hellman-Hammett Grants” which is given to writers who had been victims of political prosecution. This grant program was administered by “Human Rights Watch”, a human rights organization based in New York. She donated the received grants to organizations overseas that made an effort to improve Mongolians’ human rights. On the ground of the accusation that she called on Mongolians via internet to greet Hada in him being released on December 10, 2010 after 15 years of his imprisonment, the authorities arrested Huuchinhu and secretly confined her in a hotel room at Tongliao. They allowed her to return home one year later, but she still has been placed under observation until now.
Huuchinhu has been criticizing the Chinese government’s policies and activities towards Southern Mongolia region for 35 years such as environmental destruction, overdevelopment of grasslands, assimilationism and religious oppression. During this period, she has been subject to different abuses by the authorities including imprisonment, confinement and torture, and, in consequence, she lost the sight of both eyes in 2014 and suffered from lung cancer in May, 2016. She applied for a passport to have a chance of seeing his son in US even once, but the authorities turned down her application. She is now spending days standing pains from the cancer.
An excerpt from a document written by Mr. Thalicha (nephew of Huuchinhu) who is in Doctoral Program, Graduate School, Kobe University of Japan
Huuchinhu has always been resisting the promotion of education policies towards Mongolians by the authorities and also emphasizing that it is important for Mongolian children to receive education in their native language. In 1990, she published the《How to Write Composition》for education in Mongolian schools. Since then, most of her literary works and activities had been appealing for the preservation of deteriorating Mongolian traditional cultures and also trying to stop the government’s policies that were harmful to the education in Mongolian schools.
In May 1992, Mongolian intellectuals represented by Hada gathered at a place in Hohhot City and launched an organization named “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance”, in which Hada assumed the positon of the chairman and Huuchinhu was appointed as one of the leaders. They drafted “Ordinance for Organization of Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance” and “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance Bylaws”, where they declared that they would resist the colonization of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region by Han Chinese and fight for the self-determination and democratization of Mongolians.
On December 10 (so-called Human Rights Day), 1995, the Chinese government identified “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance” as an “illegal organization engaging in separatist activities” and arrested its members. As many as 50 members were arrested and tortured, which gave an impression to people that the second “Great Cultural Revolution” was about to start. Hada, the chairman, was charged with “Secession” and “Espionage”, sentenced to 15 years in jail, and finally sent to the Inner Mongolia No. 4 Prison located in Chi Feng.
“Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance”, an organization seeking the preservation and development of Mongolian traditional cultures, had been bringing to light the realities of the policies being implemented in Inner Mongolia by the government of the Chinese Communist Party including the increasing grassland developments due to mass immigration of Han Chinese to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the grassland environment destruction caused by underground resources exploration and the human rights violation represented by the birth control policy imposed on Mongolians in China. “Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance” had been operating within the rights granted under “Constitution of the People’s Republic of China” and “Ethnic Region Autonomous Law”, but finally collapsed after 3 years of its active period.
Huuchinhu was arrested and sent to a prison in Tongliao as well. As an aftereffect from the surgery on breast cancer in 1992, her right arm always had a swelling making the arm one size larger than a normal-sized one. Due to poor conditions and coldness in the prison at a severe winter, she fell sick after spending 2 weeks in the prison and was transferred to a hospital in the city, where she was diagnosed with rheumatism. Because of a side effect of a drug used for the cure of such disease, she suffered from another disease of high blood pressure. Although she was released from the jail because of her worsening health condition and the failure of the authorities to substantiate the “charges” against her which had been also pressed against Hada, she was later summoned to the public security department for interrogation almost every day for over 6 months. For that period, after divorcing, she lived alone with her 11-year-old son, Chael.
All Mongolians were deeply disappointed to hear that Mr. had been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. Witnessing this decision by the court from a gallery seat, Huuchinhu could not help but convincing herself and Xinna, Hada’s wife, that Hada would probably be released earlier than his long 15 years’ imprisonment thanks to some change for the democratization in China that would happen going forward.
Later, Huuchinhu was demoted from the vice-director to an ordinary researcher at the educational research center. She was luckily gotten away from dismissal but came to be assigned no specific job. Then, Huuchinhu devoted herself to writing and published many works including on “Setseg” and “Xar Moron” which are quarterly magazines written in Mongolian language.
After the introduction of the Internet at the beginning of 2000, she became a very active blogger. As the administrator, she worked on several Mongolian websites and online forums. Huuchinhu raised funds mainly with the members of web organizations such as “Mongol Yurt” and “Ehe Opho”, and conducted an activity to financially support needy students at Mongolian schools. Targeting at the elementary schools and junior high schools in three regions: Chi Feng, Tongliao and Xilingol League, such web organizations had been supporting 47 students until 2007 who are members of a poor family. The public security authorities shut down “Ehe Opho” 4 times from 2003 to 2007 and “Mongol Yurt” 6 times from 2000 to 2010, respectively. The only official reason for the shutdowns was that the organizations had a strong tendency toward ethniscim. On April 18, 2010, Sodor, the manager of “Mongol Yurt”, was secretly arrested and went missing for over 3 months after that, and “Mongol Yurt” was completely shut down.
In the spring of 2007, with organizing her works placed on quarterly magazines, etc., Huuchinhu tried to publish two books of prose poems, “Silent Gemstone” and “Stone’s Elm”. These two books were mostly made up of travel essays and reports as well as the sentences including on childhood events and natural environments and didn’t touch on any sensitive political issue that rubbed the Chinese Communist Party wrong way, but such books were not allowed to be published. The public security department ordered all publishers in Inner Mongolia not to publish Huuchinhu’s book. Huuchinhu talked to several publishers in China for publishing her books through them, but was prevented from doing so after all. This was a message from the authorities that Huuchinhu’s book would not be allowed to be published regardless of its contents and that all of her everyday social lives were being placed under strict observation.
Finally, after a lapse of 6 months, she successfully published her books through a publisher in Hong Kong. However, as the result of an immediate anonymous tip to the public security department, 1,000 copies of the prose poetry books stored in a warehouse in her apartment were confiscated by the police within less than 3 days from the tip. She loaned money to publish the books and its amount was equivalent to her annual income. Huuchinhu made a trip to the public security department and the safety department in Tongliao almost every day, but ended up receiving any specific response from the authorities.
In July of that year, Huuchinhu applied for a passport to travel overseas, but her application was denied by the public security department. In addition, she was prohibited to leave the country during the period from July 18, 2007 to July 26, 2011 by reason of “her chance of damaging the nation’s safety and interests”.
There is a unique invention of “Collective Punishment” in China’s “5000-year Glorious” history. If one person commits a crime, all of his/her relatives will be collectively punished. During the period from 1947 to 1976 when the Chinese Communist Party completed the control over Southern Mongolia, it had been applying the said unique invention to Southern Mongolia as it is, running a series of political campaigns including “Land Reforms”, “Anti-rightist Movements” and “Great Cultural Revolution”, and committing genocide against innocent people with collectively punishing not only Mongolian relatives of an assumed “offender” but his/her friends and acquaintances. All Mongolians in Southern Mongolia have a history of being subject to collective punishment in one way or another. Such events still remain deep in their memories, and therefore they are afraid of just getting close to a person with a “political problem” and exposing themselves to dangers by doing so.
Any action taken against Huuchinhu such as the travel overseas ban measure, the deprivation of her publishing right, and the confiscation of books reflects a real situation where a historical tradition of “Collective Punishment” has still been exercised against Mongolian societies in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in this 21st century.
The authorities recognized Huuchinhu as a “dangerous person” who holds “crucial political issues” so that her old friends and acquaintances, regrettably, had to leave her with the thought that having contact with her would do harm to themselves. It was no wonder that not a few people tried to help her in every way possible to achieve justice. Huuchinhu said that it was the indomitable conviction Hada kept holding even in jail that would help overcome hard realities like these.
The time had passed and it was December 10, 2010 on which Hada, a hero all Southern Mongolian secretly admired, was supposed to be released. In the context of the facts that China had been making a significant economic progress and that it put up a slogan, “We have established the society under the rule of law.”, toward the international society, Mongolians desired that impartial justice according to the law would be delivered this time and Hada would be released.
However, at that time, the authorities started to raise the suspicion and show a firm attitude. On November 6, 2010, in her blog, Huuchinhu called on people “to greet Hada” on the day he was supposed to be released. In consequence, she was taken by the public security department on November 11, and, from that day, two monitoring cars and eight plain-clothes police officers had been deployed at her apartment and she had been thoroughly put under house arrest. On November 17, in an interview with “Radio Free Asia”, Huuchinhu told about Hada’s situations in jail and her statuses. Accordingly, her cellular phone, land-line phone, personal computer and other communication devices were confiscated and her lines of communication with the outside world were completely disconnected.
After this incident, the surveillance officers were further increased up to about twenty and even her relatives came not to be allowed to see her. In July 2004, Huuchinhu and her son, Chael, visited Mongol. They stayed there only for one week but it became a trip to her spiritual homeland which she had been passionately admiring. In the independent Mongolian country, everything in her sight was beautiful. This trip must have been the happiest moment ever for her.
However, this one-week trip was identified as “a crime against China committed in Mongol” and her son was claimed to be involved in this “crime”. This mindset of Chinese government hasn’t changed from the time of Great Cultural Revolution when an act of genocide was committed.
On December 10, 2010, many individuals around the world took their interest in Hada’s release and a lot of mass media also paid attention to it. Brave young Mongolians had been waiting in front of the Inner Mongolia No. 4 Prison until the evening to greet Hada, but he didn’t show up. A day covered with heavy snow silently ended and, covered with snow as well, the heads of Mongolians were turned completely white.
On December 15, 2010, after one month from the onset of Huuchinhu’s house arrest, the police officers, as usual, broke into her house, used abusive language against her, devastated every corner of her house, and left there in such a mess. She couldn’t contain her anger for a while, and was finally struck with a brain hemorrhage. She was transferred to a hospital for surgery, but over 20 police officers even surrounded the hospital to keep watching her.
On January 26, 2011, Huuchinhu was discharged from the hospital after one and a half months from her surgery. At that time, the public security authorities told her that they would immediately give her freedom, if, in addition to her admitting and regretting her “guilt”, she maneuvered Hada into changing his mind so that he would admit his “guilt” or wrote a letter convincing Hada to make a compromise and also that they would make her be sentenced to long years in prison if she refused to follow such order from the authorities. Huuchinhu instantly turned down this order, and consequently she was taken out of the hospital and went missing.
Around the same time, a photograph showing that all three members of Hada’s family were seeing each other again was often circulated on the Internet, and, actually, no one but his wife and his son saw him. The public security authorities tried to lure Hada by saying to him, “If you sign a pledge stating that you will never engage in ‘secession’ activities, your son, Uiles, will be given a good job; Xinna will be provided sufficient compensations and also a permission to reopen “Mongol sodlol bichigiin horoo”; and you will be given a position of college professor.”, but Hada didn’t accept any part of this proposal and stuck with his beliefs with claiming, “I haven’t commit any crime and I will make an accusation against you all.”
Time had passed but Hada’s family members and Huuchinhu remained missing. Then, around the end of September, 2011, several photographs of Huuchinhu’s face after beaten by somebody were circulated on the Internet. A photograph dated July 20 showed her appearance when she was first beaten, and there were other photographs as of July 26 and July 30. It was obvious that she had been assaulted by police officers who acted as watchdogs.
Suffered from the assaults, her forehead became heavily swollen and she had violet-colored bruises of congested bloods around her eyes. Such pictures were circulated to everywhere via Baidu, a Chinese web service. The details of these incidents have not been known yet, but the following facts have been confirmed.
As soon as Huuchinhu was released from the hospital on January 26, she was taken to a hotel in the city and started to be put under house arrest. Only her two nieces were allowed to see her with a solid pledge that they would never disclose the address of the hotel and her conditions, and, in addition, they had to make a prior notification to the director of the public security department every time they saw her. Also, Huuchinhu was not permitted to talk to his son, Chael, on the phone unless she makes a notice to the director of the public security department in advance. Further, she was always kept under observation of several police officers when seeing her two nieces and talking to Chael on the phone.
The authorities closed this assault incident by just orally giving her the information that those police officers who had assaulted her were dismissed. Even worse, having circulated such photographs was regarded as the leakage of “state secrets” to outside world. Her two nieces were repeatedly summoned and interrogated by the authorities. In addition, Shahar, one of Huuchinhu’s friends, and his son were also treated as suspects and detained over a 3-day period.
As a punishment this time for the “crime” of circulating the photographs showing that she had been assaulted, Huuchinhu was transferred to another place for house arrest and prohibited to see even her two nieces. Since then, she has never been heard of. Hearing her missing, Sainbayar, her brother, made another trip to Tongliao to find her and visited the public security department with a niece.
The director of the public security department presented a paper to Sainbayar and said, “This is a letter from your sister. If you sign on to this paper, you will see her.” Sainbayar didn’t think about anything but seeing her sister’s face. He believed what the director told him and signed on to the paper without any hesitation. The niece behind him tried to stop him from signing but it was too late.
The director said with a laugh, “Well, the charge against your sister has been confirmed by this. Please go home and wait for a communication from us.” According to them, such paper was an arrest warrant against Huuchinhu. Once any one of her brothers, sisters or other family members signs on to that paper, the charge against her has been confirmed and she will be legally arrested.
Sainbayar thought that he would be able to see her sister through the arrangement of the director, but he couldn’t. After all, he approved her arrest against his true intention. An old person and the niece were just stunned and became silent. This was the event that happened on November 15, 2011.
Chapter Ⅵ Worsening of Environment Contamination & Ecology
1. Because of continuously decreasing rainfall and raising temperature, the amounts of evaporation increased and accordingly the area of Lake Hulun Hu, the biggest lake in Southern Mongolia, has been reduced again by 15% since 1999. Lake Hulun Hu, which extends across Manzhouli, New Barag Left Banner and New Barag Right Banner, is the biggest lake in Southern Mongolia and the fifth-largest lake in China. During about these15 years, the surface area of Lake Hulun Hu has been reduced from 2377㎢to 1774㎢. According to the original observed records of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region Weather Bureau that started in 1961, the area of the lake became the largest (2377㎢) in 1991. Moving into the 21st century, in the district of Lake Hulun Hu, the rainfall has been decreasing and the average rainfall became only 218mm, resulted in the least rainfall in almost the past 50 years. The average amount of decreasing rainfall per year was 48mm; the amount of evaporation from 2000 to 2008 was 1687mm; and the average amount of evaporation per year came to 41mm.
2. The pollution caused by the processing of rare earth has been worsening. Those living in the area between Baotou and Yellow River were forced to move from there and reside in a housing complex. The reason of this relocation was the fact that there was an increase in the incidence of cancer in that area and its cause had something to do with the factories where rare earth elements were won. The tailings from which rare earth elements were won (low-grade mineral resources obtained after mineral processing) were gathered and packed in a suburb area (10㎢) of Baotou which is situated next to Yellow River. These gathered tailings are radioactivity contaminated substances and therefore pose a risk of having its influence on the western area of Southern Mongolia.
3. Environment Protection Organization National Resource Conservation Committee says that there are 100,000 big and small coal mines as well as 363 heat power plants in China but more than half of them are located in the places where there is little water resource. According to World Resources Institute, 60% of these heat power plants are established in six provinces including Inner Mongolia and water resources in such six provinces account for only 5% of water resources in the whole of China. While Southern Mongolia is classified to have desert climate, it has produced the largest amount of coals in the country and its water resources in terms of ecology have been jeopardized due to coal fired power generation.
4. On July 2, 2013, Greenpease, an international environment protection organization, held a conference in Beijing and issued a report. With a view to producing oil using coal in the Ordos region in Inner Mongolia, China Shenhua Energy, the biggest coal company in China, has been injecting contaminated water into the ground while destroying the water resources as a whole. As the result of survey from March to July, a chemical substance containing a highly concentrated poison has been found in the water discarded by China Shenhua Energy. According to a study report, China Shenhua Energy uses 4 tons of coals and 10 tons of fresh water and discharges 9 tons of CO2 and 4.8 tons of contaminated water for producing 1 ton (1,000 kg) of oil. As much as 50,000,000 tons of groundwater have been already contaminated in the Ordos region. China Shenhua Energy discharges 644㎥ of industrial wastewater per hour and 4,790,000 tons of contaminated water per year. There are countless corporations like China Shenhua Energy in Southern Mongolia regions, and large-scale corporations among such corporations are so-called state enterprises. For instance, “Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd.”, a state enterprise, contaminated the ecology of Hesigten Flag, Chi Feng. Also, “Hinggan Copper and Zinc Smelter”, a chemical corporation located in Xilingol League in Western Ujumchin Banner, discharged industrial waste materials, made an impact on local herders as well as farm animals, and consequently worsened the ecology there. This corporation dug four big wells from which water was taken with intake pump for 24 hours. As the result, the local groundwater level was lowered and water was drained up to 70m below ground. A news report issued on April 22, 2016 said that 80% of groundwater had been designated as “seriously contaminated” in China and that the Southern Mongolia region was main victim of this pollution. According to “Groundwater Dynamics Monthly Report” published by “The Ministry of Water Resources” of the Chinese government, 80% of groundwater taken from 2,013 wells has been contaminated by discharged surface water used for industrial and agricultural purposes, and, therefore, has become undrinkable. Latest research information of “Mainichi Daily Newspaper” said that 32.9% of well water was measured as the fourth class quality, which is to be used for industrial purpose, and that 47.3% of well water was graded as the fifth class quality.
5. Because underground resources were taken, underground holes spread in Southern Mongolia region and it caused many cases of ground sinking. There were many cases as well where farm animals and herders lost their lives due to such sinking. According to a report by “Apple Daily” in Hong Kong (2012), excessive developments were carried out by an industrial company in Inner Mongolia grasslands, and 5,318 big holes appeared as land surfaces sank due to coal extractions only in Hulun Boir grasslands. It is said that the economy of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region had been the fastest-growing one in the country during 8 years after 2002, but, at the same time, the damaged grasslands and the contaminated environments became a problem. The various mining wastes caused Mongolians and their farm animals to be infected with different diseases, and their living conditions became harder. In November 2015 at Bayan, Urat Middle Banner, Bayannur League, a 30-year-old herder was infected with Bacillus, and 2,448 farm animals were dead owing to a preventive injection implemented by the government. Neither the local government nor the concerning corporation took their own responsibility regarding these problems, and even “a right to live”, which Chinese government often mentions, of those who live in such region has been lost. In summer, the damages from the drought got most serious. In addition, In July, an event also occurred where a swarm of locusts emerged and ate up the grasses edible for the farm animals; specifically, in July 2015, 70 locusts propagated themselves per square meter, which damaged 33,346,000㎡ of grass lands and severely damaged 14,736,000 ㎡ of them. Back in 2014, 550 locusts propagated themselves per square meter, which damaged 150,000,000㎡ of grass lands and severely damaged 80,000,000 ㎡ of them. The Chinese government has been increasingly releasing hazardous materials day by day in Southern Mongolia region under the name of economic developments, mining, metal smelting, coal fired power generation, etc., and damaging the Mongolians’ living conditions. During the period from 2002 to 2009, the discharge amounts increased by 159%, and, during the same period, the number of cement manufacturing businesses and metal smelting businesses increased up to 14 times, which further raised the discharge amounts by 18%.
6. On September 7, The Beijing News reported that a big contaminated area had been found in the middle of Tengger Dessert in Southern Mongolia region. The fact of Tengger Dessert’s pollution has been reported since 2010, and the authorities ordered fifteen corporations to “suspend their operations” based on the results of investigations on the contamination conducted for four years, but they still have continued to discharge contaminated water. Corporations located in Tengger Industrial Park, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region near Tengger Dessert and Zhongei Industrial Park, Ningsia Province, have been contaminating a large area of the desert and groundwater over a decade by releasing mining wastes and contaminated water into the desert with using a hose. Just as described, the situation where Mongolians’ ecology is being contaminated every day has been continued.
Chapter Ⅶ Political Persecution, Plundering of Lands from Herders & Violent Crackdown on Protest Activities against Such Brutalities
1. Territory Profile
The territory of Southern Mongolian (Inner Mongolian) refers to the region where Mongolian residents who are governed by People’s Republic of China. More specifically, it includes Mongolian territories which were divided into as a part of Heilungjiang Province, Jilin Province, Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Henan Province, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region after 1949, in addition to all territories of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region as of today which covers 118 million square kilometers. In this paper, Mongolians who reside in the said range of regions are referred to as Southern Mongolians (Chinese government calls them as “Mongolian Ethnic Group”) and Han Chinese as Chinese (Chinese government calls them as “Han Ethnic Group”).
2. Robbed Political Sovereignty
Japan surrendered on August 9, 1945, which led to the end of World War Ⅱ. Swiftly taking advantage of this situation, Mongolians in the eastern region of Southern Mongolia established Eastern Mongolia Autonomous Government in Vang-un Süm-e (currently, Wulaan・hot) and Holun Buyir Autonomous Government in Hyrule. However, the Chinese Communist Party developed a secret underground organization in the eastern region of Southern Mongolia, popularized Marxism and Maoism as well as thoughts of socialism and communism by penetrating into regional governments established by Mongolians, and gradually recomposed the regional government.
The issue of Southern Mongolia is considered to be one of several minority ethnic issues China has. After World War Ⅱ, Southern Mongolia became a victim of a subsurface power game among great powers including US, former USSR and UK , which game was an extension of the conflicts of interest among those countries and unequal Yalta Agreement, and it was forced to accept the rules of communism. Later, the Chinese Communist Party introduced continuous political movements to Southern Mongolia region, which killed many Mongolians.
We launched a website, a magazine and other media 10 years ago. Our goal is to receive sympathy from societies and raise worldwide interest by letting people know about Southern Mongolia. Also, our goal relates to the setting up the Southern Mongolia Quriltai (The World South Mongolia Congress) for advancing free and democratic movements in Southern Mongolia and the promotion of the democratization of China by enhancing mutual cooperation with Tibet and Uighur and coordinating with overseas forces.
A large-sized student protest occurred in Southern Mongolia in May 2011. This protest was triggered by an incident where Chinese truck drivers carrying coals took the life of Mergen, a herder, by intentionally hitting, dragging and crushing him. A serious problem underlying this incident was that authorities have been destroying the ecology of Mongolians and broken down their living environments by art. Since then, to date, herders in respective regions of Southern Mongolia have been protesting and resisting the authorities in relation to the land and pasture issues.
Section 2 Economical Plundering
In Southern Mongolia region, especially Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the key points of economic activities are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese people. Almost all those players that cast strong influence over key economic organizations and sections such as financial institutions, stock trade institutions, traffic, logistics, aviation and state enterprises are controlled by Chinese.
Section 3 Possession of Land
Status of Resistance Movements by Farmers & Herders for Protecting Their Farm lands & Pasture Lands Illegally Occupied by Chinese:
1．On May 10, 2011, Mergen, a Mongolian herder in Right Ujimqin Banner, Xilingol League, Southern Mongolia, sacrificed his life for protecting ecology of his hometown. Mergen, who had stood against the destruction of pastures due to the coal mine development by Chinese, was brutally killed by coal hauling people after a day-long conflict happened between about 40 local herders and about 100 coal hauling Chinese. Mergen’s body was pinned under the wheel of a truck and drugged about 150 meters, and then repeatedly crushed by the wheels of a group of trucks. According to Zorigt, a Mongolian blogger, the drivers of 100-ton trucks for carrying coals who slaughtered Mr. Mergen were extremely violent and arrogant as well as filled with hate, and said, “My truck has been sure to be insured. A stinky Mongolian’s life doesn’t worth even 40,000 Yuan.”
Mr. Zorigt expressed his anger on his blog by saying, “Trucks carrying coals randomly drive through the pastures just for taking a shortcut and are devastating already weakened grasslands as well as killing not a few farm animals.” After thoroughly making a petition to various levels of local governments, since April 26, 2011, Mongolian herders of 4 Gachaas (Bayanbulag, Saruul, Davshilt and Hongor) in Hoolt Township didn’t have any other option but to organize themselves to prevent the trucks from trespassing into the pastures.
It has been advertised in recent years that the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Southern Mongolia) is the “China’s energy base”, and the government of Autonomous Region has been promoting a region-wide campaign to develop hundreds of coal mines within the region. In 2010, Xinhua News Agency (China’s state-run press) reported that the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region became “the first province-level administrative district which annual coal output exceeded 0.7 billion tons.” According this article, with 732.3 billion tons of coal reserves and 36 open-pit coal mines that had produced over 0.1 billion tons of coals, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region became China’s top coal producing region,
Not left behind for this “coal rush”, the local government of Right Ujumchin Banner invited state-run and private mining companies from all over China to develop coals mines of various sizes throughout the banner area.
Bayaguut, a Southern Mongolian cyber dissident, says, “All this means is that many Chinese will rush to our ancestral land, drive Mongolians out of the area, destroy the environments and take away the mineral resources.” Bayaguut also says, “These really are 3-dimentional attack. The Chinese have been destroying our lands, contaminating our air, and now digging up our underground resources. What will be left for us is an inhuman barren.”
Reactions to the slaughter of Mergen from Southern Mongolians are intense and emotional. Some of them call for an organized mass movement of Southern Mongolians to resist the Chinese colonial rule; some express their disappointments with China’s existing legal system that cannot protect Mongolians’ rights; and some describe Hada as the modern day Gada Meiren, an national hero for Southern Mongolians who died 80 years ago in a battle against the colonization by China.
Triggered by this incident, furious resistance movements occurred in the regions of Southern Mongolia. On May 24, a resistance of several hundreds of people was organized against the government of Right Ujumchin Banner and four people were arrested then. The banner’s government didn’t perform any process to the family members of Mergen other than paying some amounts of money to them. In consequence, on May 25, about 2,000 junior high school students gathered in front of the building of the government of Right Ujumchin Banner and made a representation to the government that the rights and dignities of Mongolians should be protected. After May 27, an army was stationed in Right Ujumchin Banner and the neighboring Xulun Hoh Banner; people there were watched by the army; and their internet connections and communications were shut down. Nevertheless, herders and junior high school students rallied before the building of the banner’s government and made a resistance demonstration.