The PRC's Official Discourse on Mongolia since 1990

The issue of interactions between the Han Chinese and Mongolian minority national in the PRC has been drawing serious attention of western scholars in recent years. The focal point of this study is the textual representation of what used to be called 'Outer Mongolia' and its people, in Chinese authoritative writings since the beginning of the1990s, a period marked by the onset of a new era in the history of Mongolia and Sino-Mongolian relations. This study assesses the current, arguably competing or complementing, discourses on Mongolia embedded in officially approved and published texts meant for a general, Chinese-speaking readership. It analyses the evolution of these discourses and highlights the discrepancies between the authoritative discourses on Mongolia of the CCP and government publications. This study uses discourse analysis as an analytical framework complemented by detailed case studies of particular representational practices and linguistic devices employed by the producers of Chinese texts to construct Mongolia's 'true' identity through their writings. The texts have been read against the socio-political context of China-Mongolia interactions since 1990.