ABSTRACT
The government of Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), which lasted from 1927 to 1949, cared a great deal about China’s national unity, and was aware how important minorities could be in border affairs. However, he was not particularly concerned about minority affairs from any other point of view. The Japanese had attempted to woo over the Mongolians to their side and part of the Mongolian population, as well as other ethnic groups of northeast China or Manchuria, had belonged to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukoku in the 1930s and down to their defeat in 1945. The succeeding civil war had done nothing to improve the situation in the country as a whole either economically or socially, either for the majority Han people or the minorities.
