China–Mongolia relations (, ) refer to the bilateral relations between Mongolia and China. These relations have long been determined by the relations between China and the Soviet Union, Mongolia's other neighbour and main ally until early 1990. With the rapprochement between the USSR and China in the late 1980s, Chinese-Mongolian relations also began to improve. Since the 1990s, China has become Mongolia's biggest trading partner, and a number of Chinese businesses operate in Mongolia.
Country comparison
Background
The Han and Mongol (as well as their ancestors, the Proto-Mongols) peoples have been in contact with each other for millennia.
Throughout history, polities in the Central Plains and the Mongolian Plateau have had complicated relations. The Great Wall was constructed to ward off attacks by nomads from the north, notably during the Han and Ming dynasties. The Tang dynasty, following its defeat of the Xueyantuo, established the Protectorate General to Pacify the North in 647 to rule the Mongolian Plateau.
In 1271, the Mongols under Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, established the Yuan dynasty as a Chinese dynasty and conquered all of China proper in 1279. In 1368, the Ming dynasty successfully overthrew the Yuan dynasty and the remnant Yuan imperial court was forced to retreat north, thereby forming the Northern Yuan dynasty.
The Ming Great Wall was strengthened and the period was characterized by repeated Ming raids into Northern Yuan territory and vice versa. During the transition from Ming to Qing, the Northern Yuan monarch Ligdan Khan allied with the Ming against the Qing dynasty until Ligdan was defeated by Qing forces and Inner Mongolia was conquered by the Qing. In 1644, the Ming dynasty was overthrown by peasant rebels under Li Zicheng, who established the short-lived Shun dynasty which would soon be defeated by the Qing dynasty. During the Qing rule from 1691, Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia were incorporated into the empire.
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the Republic of China was established and Outer Mongolia declared its independence after more than 200 years of Qing rule. During this period, the Beiyang government of the Republic of China, as the successor to the Qing, claimed Outer Mongolia as Chinese territory. This claim was provided for in the Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor signed by the Empress Dowager Longyu on behalf of the six-year-old Xuantong Emperor: "[...] the continued territorial integrity of the lands of the five races, Manchu, Han, Mongol, Hui, and Tibetan into one great Republic of China" ([...] ). However, the Chinese government lacked any stable control over the region due to massive civil wars in the south and the rise of regional warlords in the Warlord Era. Consequently, Outer Mongolia sought Russian support to claim its independence. In 1919, Chinese general Xu Shuzheng advanced into Outer Mongolia and annulled its independence. In 1921, Chinese forces were driven out by White Russian forces led by Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. Some months later they were driven out by the Red Army of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Far Eastern Republic and pro-Soviet Mongolian forces. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed. With the onset of the Japanese invasion of China, little effort was given to reestablish Chinese control over Outer Mongolia.
Following the end of World War II, the Republic of China, led by the Kuomintang, was forced to formally accept Outer Mongolian independence under Soviet pressure, but this recognition was revoked in 1953. In 1949, the Communists won the Chinese Civil War and re-recognized Mongolia's independent status.