A Letter To The New York Times
April 12, 2003
David Barboza¡¯s article entitled ¡°The Wisconsin of China:
Got Milk, but Hold the Cheese¡± (April 8 business section) reports
the improving economic conditions of Chinese dairy farmers. Although the report
is an interesting description of this phenomenon, it fails to take note of one
of the great ironies of modern Chinese history, one which most likely would
be lost on the typical reader of the New York Times.
When the Communists emerged victorious following the chaos of World War 2, the
new government of China encouraged an enormous population transfer of Han Chinese
farmers from other provinces of China to Inner Mongolia. At the same time, the
Chinese government increasingly (and forcibly) limited the traditional nomadic
herding lifestyle of the indigenous Mongols. Hundreds of thousands of Mongol
households lost their lands, houses and livestock as a result of the government¡¯s
"Ecological Immigration" policy ("sheng tai yi min" in Chinese)
in Inner Mongolia. The Han Chinese farmers proceeded to plow up vast tracts
of the grasslands and steppes, lands which were perfectly suited for the herding
lifestyle of the Mongols. Over the ensuing half century, the farming practices
of millions of Han Chinese farmers caused enormous environmental damage and
transformed the lush grasslands into desert, intensifying the dust storms which
periodically cover much of the Asian region including Beijing, storms which
are now international events. The government blamed the increasing severity
of the duststorms on overgrazing due to the Mongols¡¯ 'backward and
primitive' traditional nomadic lifestyle" which justified further limitations
on Inner Mongolia¡¯s ever dwindling nomads, but the real culprit
ultimately was their misguided population transfer policy. A policy which had
a fundamental political aim to make the Mongols a minority in their own lands,
which they achieved, but at what a cost, the environmental destruction of Inner
Mongolia and consequent effects.
So now we read in Barboza¡¯s report that "¡after decades
of tilling the soil to produce food for their families and local communities,
farmers throughout this region are starting to abandon traditional crops like
corn and wheat in favor of dairy cows." After they have turned the lands
barren, the transplanted farmers are coming around to embracing the Mongols¡¯
'backward and primitive' herding lifestyle. Will the government of China take
due notice and acknowledge their role in the environmental devastation of Inner
Mongolia.
Sanj Altan
1917 Arlington Ave
North Brunwick NJ
Tel: (732)297-1140
Enhebatu Togochog
Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
37-40 79 St
Jackson Heights NY 11372
Tel: (718)899-8391