Reins of Liberation

Xiaoyuan Liu is Associate Professor of History at Iowa State University and a recent Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. He is author of Frontier Passages: Ethnopolitics and the Rise of Chinese Communism, 1921-1945 (Stanford University Press and the Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004).

• List of MapsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I Independence and Revolution, 1911-19451 China and Mongolia: From Empire to National StatesFacets of the Mongolia QuestionIndependence for the Second TimeEthnic Separation and National RevolutionPartisan, National, and Imperial Interests2 "Red Protective Deity": World Revolution and GeopoliticsBolsheviks and Mongolian PartisansEurasian Federation vs. Soviet EmpireDivided Nation and Split Revolution3 Dialectics of Brotherhood: The Chinese Communist Party and the Mongolian People's RepublicRevolutionary ParadoxRally toward PeripheryReturn to CentralityPart II Autonomy and Civil War, 1945-19504 "National Fever": The Genesis of anAutonomous MovementFrom Colonialism to National FeverLiberation through UnificationDegrees of Self-Government5 Ethnic Strategy: The Eastern Mongolian ExperienceChengde ConcessionXing'an IntervalWangyemiao Finale6 "Restoration": The Guomindang's Administrative EndeavorDelusive "Frontier AdministrationAbortive "RestorationElusive "Loyalists7 "Liberation": The Chinese Communist Party's Interethnic ApproachDecide on a StrategyAwake to SpontaneitySecure "National BannerEnact "Leftist ExcessivenessPart III Ethnicity and Hegemony, 1945-19508 "New Frontier":America's Encounter with Inner MongoliaPartisan MongolsRacial MongolsChange of ClimatePrincely Connection9 The Range of "Wild Wind": Moscow's Inner Mongolia StratagemA Sense of LimitsContaining NationalismHierarchy of Patronage10 The Structure of Bloc Politics: Mao, Stalin, and Mongolian IndependenceA Fractured Revolutionary AllianceResetting the Interstate RelationshipBetween National and Bloc InterestsMongolian Independence, Again11 Epilogue: Territoriality, Power, and LegitimacyA Note on TransliterationAcronyms and AbbreviationsBibliographyIndex

"Liu Xiaoyuan's dense but thought-provoking volume... is an essential tome for contemporary Chinese historians as well as those who follow Mongolia, not only because it throws new light on the period, but also because it offers a new paradigm to analyze the Chinese communist drive for national sovereignty."—American Historical Review "This book is excellent. It is well written, with a personal touch that makes for interesting reading... It is a truly path-breaking study for our knowledge of Mongolian and Chinese histories, and ways of looking at them."—The China Journal "An extensive and often fascinating body of detail, which will interest historians of the Chinese civil war."—International History Review "Liu's work is especially important in providing new insight on the post-WWII struggle of various Mongol independence groups to assert themselves, and the impact this had on the ultimate creation of Inner Mongolia and other autonomous regions in China."—CHOICE "With the publication of this book, Mongolia and the Mongols will be central to any study of China's history of modern diplomacy, China's nationalism, communism, the Chinese Communist Party-Nationalist struggle for supremacy, and studies of ethnicity. A truly monumental piece of scholarship."—Uradyn E. Bulag, City University of New York "This book represents the second installment in a project to rethink the twentieth-century history of China and China's self-image in its 'ethnopolitical' context. As a product of the 'great-power-rivalry' approach to Inner Asia, Liu's work is indeed a success and offers much of interest to scholars of modern China." —Asian Studies Review