Frontier passages: ethnopolitics and the rise of Chinese communism, 1921-1945

In this pathbreaking book, Xiaoyuan Liu establishes ways in which history of Chinese Communist Party was, from Yan'an period onward, intertwined with ethnopolitics of Chinese periphery. As a Han-dominated party, CCP had to adapt to an inhospitable political environment, particularly among Hui (Muslims) of northwest China and Mongols of Inner Mongolia. Based on a careful examination of CCP and Soviet Comintern documents only recently available, Liu's study shows why CCP found itself unable to follow Russian Bolshevik precedent by inciting separatism among non-Han peoples as a stratagem for gaining national power. Rather than swallowing Marxist-Leninist dogma on the nationalities question, CCP took a position closer to that of Kuomintang, stressing inclusiveness of Han-dominated Chinese nation, Zhongua Minzu.