How China is turning to historical narrative to ramp up its border security

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.

As its rivalry with the United States escalates, China sees greater urgency than ever to ensure local stability, secure relations with its neighbours, grow the economy, forge a strong Chinese consciousness in ethnic communities and gain a strong footing in the narrative.

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.

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.