Other Parts of ‘Greater China’ since 1911

Abstract

The preceding outline of the history of China since 1911 has been dominated by the events, personalities and trends in what is often called Mainland China. This was the administered area and population bequeathed to the Chinese Republic by the Qing Dynasty at its demise, excluding the Mongol lands in the north which in 1945 became the Mongolian People’s Republic, also known as Outer Mongolia. Yet clearly there is a need for some representation of the history of other areas where ethnic Chinese have dominated the population, areas which today are claimed by the People’s Republic as inalienable parts of China. These areas are Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan with its associated offshore islands, and from the early 1990s they and the People’s Republic of China together have often been described as ‘Greater China’.