United States: Manchuria is a vast fertile land that is blessed with all kinds of resources. For thousands of years, our ancestors have founded great kingdoms and empires on this land: Juxen, Pakji, Gioro, Siber, Butha, Khitan, Jurchen, Mongol Empire, Daicing Empire, and in the modern era, Manchukuo. Manchuria has been the homeland of many different tribes in history. Their names were different. Their cultures and customs were not exactly the same. But one thing in common is that all their identities were deeply rooted in this land, independent from outside, especially independent from China.
For thousands of years, we have always been a powerhouse in Northeast Asia, a melting pot of nomadic, agricultural and maritime cultures with our own independent, sovereign Manchurian nations. Manchuria had never been a part of China or a subordinate of the Chinese empire throughout history. On the contrary, Manchuria has conquered a significant part of the entire China Proper for several times. Chinese nationalists and Han Chinese supremacists shamelessly mistake the Manchurian rule of China and other neighbouring nations as the historical proof that Manchuria, East Turkistan, Tibet, Mongolia, and Taiwan belong to China. This is like turning the historical facts completely upside down. I bet you will laugh your chin off if one day Nigeria claims that Ireland is their territory because they were both in the realm of British. This is how ridiculous China’s claim on Manchuria and other neighbouring Asian nations are!
The most recent example of the Manchurian rule of China and Inner Asia is the Daicing Empire, known as the Qing Dynasty by the Chinese. It is a multi-nation empire with the Manchu (and many Mongol) aristocracies as its core and organized by bilateral arrangements between Manchu aristocracies and Mongolia, East Turkistan, Tibet and China based on the traditional system of each nation. In the late stage of the empire, because the overwhelming majority of the population is Chinese, many can mistake it as the Imperial Chinese Empire. But Manchurians and people of other nations, no matter social and economic classes, never identify with Chinese. When the Daicing Empire came to its end in early 20th Century, the Chinese revolutionaries wanted to use their “Chinese Nation” narratives, which was newly invented by Confucian intellectual Liang Qichao in late 19th Century, to annex the neighbouring Asian nations that do not belong to them. That leads to all the invasions, tyranny, and atrocities by China to bring neighbouring Asian nations to “unification”.
In Daicing Empire, Manchuria was governed by itself with completely different systems than China. In late-stage of Daicing and early 20th Century, Manchuria gradually opened itself and welcomed the settlers from all over the world with its vast fertile land, rich natural resource, and almost limitless opportunities. Japanese and Russians invested heavily here and built railroads, cities and ports. In decades of cultivation and modernization, especially after the founding of the modern Manchurian nation-state, Manchukuo, Manchuria had achieved economic miracles. By mid-1940s, Manchuria was one of the most modernized, industrialized, and prosperous nations with world-class metropolitans, houses with heating system, flushing toilets (in 1930s!) and back yards for middle-class households, and railway network as advanced as France and Germany. Japan and Japanese people made a disproportional contribution during this process and was our greatest ally, but Manchukuo was an independent and sovereign nation, not a colony or puppet state.
After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union occupied Manchuria. It marked the beginning of our misery and tragedy. Soviet Red Army slaughtered millions of men, women, and children and raped millions of women, many of whom committed suicide afterwards because of the humiliation. “They (Soviet soldiers) chased every little girl all over the streets”, our grandparents told us. Most of the advanced industrial machines were uninstalled from factories and taken to the Soviet Union. Surrendered soldiers and civilians were used as forced labour, although the Soviet Union lied to them that all surrendered can peacefully go home to make them surrender in the first place. In the spring of 1946, the Soviet Union transferred Manchuria to China. This is the first time in history that Manchuria fell under Chinese rule. (According to Chinese narratives, Manchuria belongs to China) “Since the ancient time”, huh?
The Chinese, both Kuomintang and Communist Party, could not wait to bring Manchuria, this “traitor of Chinese Nation”, to her knees. Both were thirsty for Manchuria’s rich industrial capacities, resources, technology and railway network for their civil war. It is worth noting that right after World War II, in all China occupied areas, Manchuria consisted of 85% of all industrial output! Taiwan, 10%. China Proper? 5%! Manchuria suffered the intense battles of the Chinese civil war between Kuomintang and Communist Party, including the most tragic part, the Siege of Changchun (the former capital of Manchukuo): when the Communist Army sieged the city of Changchun, they did not allow any civilian out on purpose, to use starvation as a strategy. When the Kuomintang Army surrendered, up to 650,000 citizens in Changchun died of starvation and related causes. Along with the Chinese civil war and the Communist victory, there also came the structural elimination of the traditional Manchurian society: the “land reform” wiped out the entire landlord class and seized all lands and properties to Communist regime. The “crackdown of reactionaries” targeted the local militia who had been the cornerstone of modern Manchuria society, thus in the eyes of Chinese Communist Party, a thorn had to take out to gain total control of Manchuria. There had been gorilla warfare everywhere all the time in Manchuria from the fall of Manchuria in 1945 until the mid-1950s when almost every last Manchurian fighter hidden in mountains were killed. They were Manchurian counterparts of Baltic “Forest Brothers”. And of course, mass killings, inhumane torture, and all kinds of atrocities were part and parcel of this process.
In the era of the People’s Republic of China, when the Communist Party launched a massive central planning economy, they took Manchuria’s factories and put them in cities in China Proper. Along with the factories were the factory communities that collectively went on exile from Manchuria to all different cities in China Proper. This leads to many “Manchurian enclaves” everywhere in China. I was born and raised in such a “Manchurian enclave” factory community. The entire heavy industry of the People’s Republic of China was developed on the basis of plundering Manchuria’s industries like this. Manchuria’s rich resources also could not avoid the predatory hands of China: China “transferred” trillion-dollar worth of oil, coals, ores of metal, and agricultural products from Manchuria with little or no payment. “China Model” development also abused nature and destroyed the environment of Manchurian steppes. Khorchin steppes, a beautiful grassland and homeland to Khorchin Mongol tribes who played a key role of the ancient Mongol and Manchurian empires, had now become Khorchin desert.
Demographic replacement is a common strategy to beat down a nation in her own homeland. It is a tactic commonly used by China all over history and by Communist regimes all over the world. Just as in East Turkistan and Tibet (and also in Hong Kong since 1997), Communist China exiled “factory communities” from Manchuria and transferred and exiled tens of millions of people from China Proper to Manchuria to manipulate the demographic structure in order to destroy the organic communities and orders that Communist China considers a potential threat.
During recent years, people in Manchuria or of Manchurian origin started to wake up to China’s lies and tyrannical rule and seek their real root and identity. Manchu language became an endangered language with less than 100 native speakers in modern times, but in recent years, Manchu language schools have been expanding rapidly with many, especially young folks, become interested in Manchu language again. Some even raised their kids with Manchu as the first language. Manchuria-based Nobel Peace Prize laureate and political prisoner Liu Xiaobo, although his political views still fall in the spectrum of “Chinese democrats”, had harshly criticized the Chinese culture and famously said that China will be better off if not ruled by Chinese. He had been imprisoned by China most of the time since 1989 and in 2017, died from liver cancer. It is very likely that he was poisoned by the Communist Party. The dissident community that advocated for Manchurian independence has risen from social media in recent years and I am a part of it. We have grown from online discussion and debate about Manchuria related issues to real-life activism spreading our messages about Manchuria and connecting with Taiwanese, Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hongkongese communities and friends in United States, Japan, Europe, India and all over the world. Our activism has brought us attention and persecution from CCP: dozens have been arrested, detained or disappeared. Some we knew was detained right at the custom in the airport when entering China and then charged with “Subversion of State Power”, more serious than “Inciting Subversion of State Power”, a charge commonly used on dissidents in China. This will be my fate if I ever travel to China again. I may not be able to go to China in my lifetime. But I do not feel sad, on the contrary, I feel proud of breaking away with China, the evilest empire in the world, in this way for a worthy cause. I consider this as an exodus from Chinese totalitarianism towards freedom and civilization. I lost many friends and burned many bridges in China but only gained more in the rest of the world.
Right now, the world is waking up to China’s atrocities. The United States and its allies start to turn from the failed “engagement” strategy to serious response to China’s pervasive infiltrations, military threats, and rogue behaviour in trade and Intellectual Properties. The COVID-19 spread from China brought death, tragedies, and losses to the entire world. India is now fighting China’s invasion at the border. The world and all freedom-loving people need to work with each other and form a more robust and effective alliances against China. Together, we will bring down this evil red dragon, for a free and better Manchuria, Asia and the world!
About the Author: Oliver Kerde is a U.S.-based Manchurian activist advocating for the independence of Manchuria, which means the liberation of Chinese Occupied Manchuria, re-establishment of the Manchurian nation, and rejuvenation of Manchurian national identity and culture from the current Chinese Communist tyrannical rule. Follow him on Twitter @OBKerde
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