ABSTRACT
The railway reoriented the economy of Inner Mongolia toward China and away from the steppe. As Lattimore notes: From the east and south the railways dispatched into Inner Mongolia even more Chinese colonists than Chinese traders, because rail transport reversed the direction of grain export, making the Chinese market more profitable than the steppe market. The Chinese Way is associated with an economy based on dense settlement and intensive farming. Writers have long underscored the power of the Chinese state to override local differences in social structure. After years of repressing private enterprise, the Chinese government began in 1979 to dismantle the rural collective economy. The movement of Han to Inner Mongolia has been a long process, propelled by the interests of several Chinese states. The heavy handed imposition of policies designed to create a Chinese version of socialist uniformity during the Cultural Revolution brought the problem to a head.
