The Last Stand of Autonomy: Inner Mongolia at the Eve of Cultural Revolution, 1963–66

The few years immediately before the start of Cultural Revolution saw escalating nationwide ideological campaigns initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose central leadership in Beijing underwent drastic radicalization. The domestic political atmosphere combined with the deterioration of Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian diplomatic caused incessant troubles to the local leadership in Inner Mongolia, who strived to preserve its autonomous status, maintain moderate policy lines, and protect and promote the ethnonational identity of the Mongols. Based on Party and government documents collected from more than twenty archives in Inner Mongolia, as well as newspapers, memoirs, and internal publications, this article scrutinizes the dynamics of interaction between the CCP central leadership in Beijing headed by Mao on the one hand, and the local CCP committee in Inner Mongolia headed by Ulanhu on the other hand. This article argues that the Inner Mongolian leadership took diverse measures to boycott the ideological campaigns launched by Beijing. It took advantage of its position at the frontier of Sino-Soviet contention to stress stability and development over ideology, and set up several typical examples to demonstrate that Mongols were no less ideologically advanced than Han Chinese. The Inner Mongolian leadership at times unwillingly yielded to some of the Maoist ideological demands, including class re-classification in pastoral area, and at times staged brave counteroffensives to Beijing’s lines, even launching its own ideological campaign against Han Chauvinism, bringing the ideological animosity with Beijing to full swing. These efforts to a significant extent protected residents of Inner Mongolia from the radical Maoist lines, but also put Inner Mongolia’s loyalty to Beijing into question, foreshadowing the bloody suppression this autonomous region later suffered during the Cultural Revolution. Eventually, the Inner Mongolian leadership collapsed at the onset of the Cultural Revolution, ending the two decades of authentic autonomy enjoyed by Inner Mongolia.