Now, Chinese academics are being mobilised to rapidly build up indigenous expertise in borderland governance as Beijing calls for deeper research on related theoretical and practical issues.
Xing Guangcheng, director of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said accelerated efforts were a “necessity” because the borderlands held an “extremely significant strategic” position.
“[This is] to meet the country’s major needs, provide theoretical support for borderland governance and deconstruct the Western theoretical discourse on China’s borderlands from an academic and theoretical perspective,” he said at a symposium in January.
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Will India and China’s new border deal lead to long-term peace in the disputed Himalayas?
Will India and China’s new border deal lead to long-term peace in the disputed Himalayas?
China has more than 22,000km (13,700 miles) of land borders shared with 14 countries and inhabited by dozens of ethnic groups. Nine provinces and autonomous regions along China’s land frontier occupy around 62 per cent of the country’s land area. It also has 18,000km of coastline.
