ABSTRACT
Today, it is not difficult for elementary-school children to point out on a world map where China is. Except for an extremely small number of experts, however, few can describe the nature of China’s various territorial disputes. Perhaps only those living in Taiwan, where the government continues to include Mongolia as part of China on maps, are aware that “China” is not a simple geographical entity. Leaders of pre-sovereign China had never needed clear borders. Giving it such borders now will only deny the moral superiority they feel, which crosses human-made boundaries of all kinds. Nor had the Chinese been known for drawing lines to indicate ethnic distinction. In fact, many groups of people who were originally not considered Chinese became Chinese simply by acquainting themselves with the Chinese Confucian and Daoist way of life while either conquerors of the Chinese Empire, which felt itself to be ruler of “all under heaven,” or victims of celestial conquest. At best, China has been a country of changing ethnic composition. Yet even this conceptualization may not be accurate.
