Asia Insight

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode Two: A Hundred Years of CCP Borderlands Policies

The Chinese Communist Party’s borderlands policies fluctuated over time since its founding, alternating between periods of gradual integration and forced assimilation. Regardless of the methods used, the Party’s goal has remained the same: to meld all these regions and their people into a coherent national whole. 

This second episode examines how the notions of Borderlands, of nation-building, and of ethnic policies have been intimately intertwined throughout the hundred years of CCP existence. With contributions from Professor Benno Weiner (Carnegie Mellon University), Professor Robert Barnett (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Lau China Institute, King’s College), and Professor James Leibold (La Trobe University).

Materials cited or referenced in the recording

• Benno Weiner, The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020)
• Andrew Martin Fisher, The Disempowered Development of Tibet in China: A Study in the Economics of Marginalization (Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2014)
• Fei Xiaotong [费孝通], The Chinese Nation’s Diversity to Unity Model [中华民族多元一体格局] (Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press, 1989)
• Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation?” (speech delivered at the Sorbonne University, Paris, on March 11, 1882)

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

• Minzu 民族 nation, nationality(ies), ethnic group(s)
• Shaoshu minzu 少数民族 ethnic minorities
• Minzu tuanjie 民族团结 ethnic/national unity
• Minzu gongzuo 民族工作 ethnic policy work / nation building work
• Duoyuanyiti 多元一体 diversity within unity / plurality and unity / multiple origins, one body / from diversity towards unity
• Zhonghua minzu 中华民族 Chinese nation
• Zhulao 铸牢 to forge
• Zhuhun 铸魂 to cast souls
• Zhonghua minzu gongtongti yishi 中华民族共同体意识 collective consciousness of the Chinese nation / a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation

Recommended additional readings

• Uradyn E. Bulag, “Good Han, Bad Han: The Moral Parameters of Ethnopolitics in China,” in Thomas Mullaney et.al. (Eds.) Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China’s Majority (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012)
• Vanessa Frangville, “‘Unity Within Diversity’: The Chinese Communist Party’s Construction of the Chinese Nation,” in Jérôme Doyon et.al. (Eds.) The Chinese Communist Party: A 100-Year Trajectory (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2024)
• James Leibold, “Toward A Second Generation of Ethnic Policies?” Jamestown China Brief 12(13) July 7, 2012
• James Leibold, “Ethnic Policy in China: Is Reform Inevitable?” East-West Center Policy Studies 68, 2013
• Benno Weiner, “‘This Absolutely Is Not a Hui Rebellion!’: The Ethnopolitics of Great Nationality Chauvinism in Early Maoist China,” Twentieth-Century China 48(3) 2023

In this episode of Asia Insight, we explore a recent NBR research project that examined the cumulative impact of three trends—the evolution of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical landscape, recurring questions about U.S. alliance commitments, and domestic political debates on nuclear armament—on the sustainability of U.S. extended deterrence and nuclear restraint in Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Zack Cooper is the project’s Principal Investigator, and he is also a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Bee Yun Jo is a Research Fellow in the Center for Security Strategy at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

Lavina Lee is Director of the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney in Australia.

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode One: From Empire to Nation

When you look at the People’s Republic of China’s map today, you look roughly at the map of the Qing empire - with the notable exceptions of outer Mongolia, Taiwan, and portions of Siberia. Two hundred years ago, the Qing’s borderlands included the Manchu, Tibetan, Hmong, Mongol and Hui (Turkic-speaking Muslim populations of the western regions). Today, twenty neighbors share a land or a maritime border with China. 

In this first episode, with the help of Professor Nicola Di Cosmo (Institute of Advanced Study) and Maria Adele Carrai (NYU Shanghai), we travel back in time to better understand how the imperial borderlands have been integrated within China’s national territory at the turn of the 20th century.

Materials cited in the recording

• Joseph W. Esherick, How the Qing Became China, in. Esherick et. al. (Eds) Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)
• Maria Adele Carrai, Sovereignty in China: A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)

This episode of Asia Insight was recorded directly following NBR’s annual Energy Security Workshop in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2025. NBR advisor and Energy Security Program research director Mikkal Herberg hosts a conversation with Philip Andrews-Speed, Kurt Glaubitz, and Ken Koyama.

The four discuss takeaways from the workshop’s presentations on Asia’s LNG (liquified natural gas) landscape and the implications for regional energy and economic security, while also delving deeper into areas they plan to explore further ahead of NBR’s annual Energy Security Program report release in late-2025.

Philip Andrews-Speed is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Kurt Glaubitz is the Co-Founder of the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association and Former Corporate Affairs General Manager for the Chevron Corporation, Asia Pacific Exploration and Production.

Mikkal Herberg is a member of NBR’s Board of Advisors and the Research Director of NBR’s Energy Security Program.

Ken Koyama is Senior Managing Director and Chief Economist in charge of the Research Strategy Unit at The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.

The project Documenting China's Borderlands is led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR. The project investigates how China invests in, engages with, and deepens its presence within its land and maritime border neighbors in an attempt to reshape its immediate periphery.

In this introductory episode hosted by NBR President Michael Wills, Rolland discusses what sparked this research effort, how the project defines China's borderlands, which areas of Chinese statecraft will be examined, and what our listeners can ultimately expect from this forthcoming Asia Insight miniseries.

The virtual dashboard mentioned in the conversation will be publicly available starting July 28, 2025.

Documenting China's Borderlands, led by NBR Distinguished Fellow, China Studies Nadège Rolland, investigates how China invests in, engages with, and deepens its presence within its land and maritime border neighbors in an attempt to reshape its immediate periphery.

This research effort is the second phase of NBR's Mapping China’s Strategic Space project (https://strategicspace.nbr.org/) which defined strategic space as a realm vital to the pursuit of China’s national economic and security objectives and to the enduring survival of the Chinese state.

The audio documentaries presented in this forthcoming Asia Insight miniseries are a part of a larger set of products from this research effort, which will include written publications, regional conferences, and a virtual dashboard visualizing key data on China's engagement with its borderland neighbors. The dashboard will be publicly available starting July 28, 2025.

In this episode of Asia Insight, NBR President Michael Wills is joined by Rear Admiral Mike Studeman (U.S. Navy, ret.) and Cathy Johnston as they assess the People's Liberation Army ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's goal to build a world-class military by 2049.

Cathy Johnston spent 33 years in the Intel Community mostly focused on Asia. Her last assignment was as the Deputy Director of Intelligence at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

Mike Studeman is the former Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and a retired Rear Admiral. He is a member of NBR’s Board of Advisors.

Michael Wills is President of NBR.

In this episode of Asia Insight, NBR President Michael Wills hosts a conversation with Laura Rosenberger and Roy Kamphausen on strategic outlooks for Taiwan. This discussion follows an NBR delegation trip to Taiwan led by retired U.S. Navy Admiral John Aquilino, the 26th Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, from April 28–May 2, 2025.

On this special episode of Asia Insight, NBR Distinguished Fellow for China Studies Nadège Rolland and NBR Senior Fellow for Asian Security Bates Gill discuss the May 12, 2025 white paper released by China’s State Council Information Office on China’s national security in the new era.

In this episode of Asia Insight, Doug Strub hosts a conversation with Michael Beeman and Daisuke Kawai on how the United States and Japan are bolstering their technological and economic security while navigating digital disruptions and supply chain vulnerabilities.

Michael Beeman served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea and APEC at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 2017–2023.

Daisuke Kawai is Director of the Economic Security and Emerging Technology Program and Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. He is also a Nonresident Fellow at NBR.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.