Chinese Workers in the History of the Mongolian People’s Republic in the 1950s–1960s: Cooperation, Politics, Ideology

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the historic periods of Mongolia of the 20th century, when the Mongolian People’s Republic built the foundations of a socialist society, and key modernization processes took place with the support of the Soviet Union. The economic component of Soviet-Mongolian relations was dominant at that time. However, the assistance from the People’s Republic of China played a definitely important role in the economic development and formation of modern Mongolian society. Labour constraint was one of the main difficulties in promoting industrial economy in Mongolia. The study of the Mongolian-Chinese economic cooperation is also relevant today, despite the influence of the “third force” in Mongolia’s foreign policy. Russian and Chinese directions are in priority. In this regard, it is important to refer to the experience accumulated by countries in the field of economic interaction, which determined the purpose of the publication ‒ to study one of the aspects of Mongolian-Chinese cooperation in the 1950s and early 1960s, namely, the employment of Chinese labour in Mongolia based on a rich source base, including both the published documents and documents from the National Archives of Mongolia, as well as historical works by Russian and Mongolian authors, and to consider such issues as the role of foreign labour, in particular, Chinese workforce in the industrialization of Mongolia, traffic of foreign workers into the Mongolian People’s Republic, and then their family members, the employment of Chinese workers, ideological and cultural events organized by party officials of the Chinese Communist Party. The research methodology is specified by the principles of scientific objectivity, historicism and historical determinism. The work uses both universal scientific methods and special methods of historical research determined by the formulated problem and includes problem-chronological method, comparative analysis method, and systemic method. The study revealed that the employment of workers from the PRC in Mongolia took place within the framework of the diplomatic relations established in 1949 and based on the agreements reached in 1956, 1958 and 1960 in respect of providing economic and technical assistance. It was emphasized that Chinese workers became an integral part of the changing Mongolian society for almost a decade, from 1955 to 1964. The Mongolian side fulfilling bilateral agreements on the working conditions of Chinese employees opened schools for Chinese children, created additional medical centers where Chinese doctors worked, and so on; all this introduced some adjustments to the everyday life of Mongolian society in the mid-20th century. Today, the process of rethinking, re-evaluating the path traversed by Mongolia throughout the 20th century continues, the external conditions of the Mongolian People’s Republic are being revised, so a detailed reference to its history can contribute to the formation of a more objective approach to this process.