Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences


The Northeast Project, which is short for the Serial Research Project on the History and Current State of the Northeast Borderland, was a five-year research project on the history and current situation of the frontiers of Northeast China which lasted from 2002 to 2007. It was launched by the Chinese Academy of Social Science and received financial support from both the Chinese government and the CASS.
The stated purpose of the Northeast Project was to use authoritative academic research to restore historical facts and protect the stability of Northeast China—a region sometimes known as Manchuria—in the context of the strategic changes that have taken place in Northeast Asia since China's "Reform and Opening" started in 1978. Two of the project's leaders accused some foreign scholars and institutions of rewriting history to demand territory from China or to promote instability in the frontier regions, hence the necessity of the Project.
The Project has been criticized for applying the contemporary vision of China as a "unified multiethnic state" to ancient ethnic groups, states and history of the region of Manchuria and northern Korea. According to this idea, there was a greater Chinese state in the ancient past. Accordingly, any pre-modern people or state that occupied any part of what is now the People's Republic of China is defined as having been part of Chinese history. Similar projects have been conducted on Tibet and Xinjiang, which have been named Southwest Project and Northwest Project, respectively.
Due to its claims on Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae, the project sparked disputes with Korea. In 2004, this dispute threatened to lead to diplomatic disputes between the People's Republic of China and South Korea, although all governments involved seem to exhibit no desire to see the issue damage relations.

Organization

The Northeast Project was approved in 2001. Its first organizational meeting was held in Changchun in June 2001 between representatives of the Chinese Academy of Social Science and delegates from the Politburo of the Communist Party of Jilin Province, but the five-year project officially began in February 2002. The "Second Academic Conference on the History and Current State of the Northeast and on Gaogouli" was held in Changchun in July 2002, organized by the "Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography" and the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, and supported by ten more academic institutions from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning.
Various figures have been cited for the Project's budget. One document issued by the "Northeast Project expert committee" on 28 February 2002 earmarked funds of 15 million yuan for the project, planning to use 2.5 million yuan per year. The funding was to come from three sources: the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the CASS itself, and the provincial committee of the Communist Party of Jilin, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang. Two articles unrelated to the Northeast Project claim that the Project had a budget of "an astounding 20 billion yuan", or about "three trillion Korean won."

Background

In 1982 the PRC constitution was amended to redefine the People's Republic of China as a "unitary multinational state built up jointly by the people of all its nationalities". Inspired by such concepts, in the 1990s some Chinese historians such as Sun Jinji 孫進己 and Zhang Boquan 張博泉 began to re-identify Goguryeo, especially the first half of Goguryeo's history before it moved its capital to the Korean peninsula, as part of the history of China rather than Korea. As early as 1993, the leader of a North Korean delegation attending a historical conference on Goguryeo in China accused Chinese historians of understanding ancient China as coterminous with the PRC, a view he claimed was not backed up by historical evidence. In 2002, the PRC government took the North Korea delegation leader's challenge and initiated the Northeast Project.
China asserted that Goguryeo was an ethnic Tungusic state; and in modern-day China, Tungusic ethnicities like Manchus are citizens of China and viewed as part of China's multi-ethnic historical civilization.
The Northeast Project is part of a series of historical research projects conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Science, preceded by the Origin of Chinese Civilization Project and Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project. These projects and other subsequent ones such as the Northeast Project are based on the modern idea of Zhonghua Minzu or a "unified multi-ethnic state", which conceives ancient China in terms of the territorial bounds of the modern Chinese state. This has led to numerous historical research projects by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on areas near the Chinese border, where historical territory overlaps with contemporary neighbors. This includes Manchuria and the Korean peninsula, which comprise the contemporary territories of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation.
The Northeast Project consists of research on historical kingdoms, polities and ethnicities in this area, and also modern issues such as territorial disputes and immigration. Pre-modern historical kingdoms and polities covered in the Northeast Project are in chronological order: Gojoseon, Buyeo, Goguryeo, Baekjae, Balhae, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Joseon and Qing Dynasty. Modern historical and contemporary states covered by the Northeast Project are the Empire of Japan, the Soviet Union, South and North Korea and the PRC. Research in the Northeast Project has claimed Gojoseon, Bueyo, Goguryeo and Balhae as regional governments of the ancient Chinese empire. This contrasts with other historiography, where these kingdoms are considered to be sovereign independent states in Korean history.

Reactions

The Northeast Project's claims on ancient kingdoms that most Koreans consider as part of their own history began to receive wide press coverage in South Korea in 2004, which led to public outrage. The Northeast Project has also received strong criticism from academic experts from South Korea and many other countries including China itself. Controversy mainly focused on Goguryeo, which continues to play a central role in Korean nationalism. The Northeast Project's appropriation of Goguryeo has become a turning point in public perception of China in South Korea and also affected strategic and diplomatic relations between the two countries. In South Korea, the Northeast Project has come to symbolize China's historical revisionism and radical political expansionism and continues to be mentioned even well after the Project was officially concluded in 2007.
However, there are lingering doubts as to whether the Northeast Project is truly finished. According to some Korean scholars, the termination of the Northeast Project is still debatable.
After the Northeast Project came under strong criticism in 2004, key members of the Northeast Project, along with other academics in Northeast China, founded the journal History and Geography of Northeast China, published by the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences. The journal continued most research formerly conducted by the Northeast Project, and further expanded its research scope to include the historical kingdoms and polities of Lelang Commandery and Silla, both located in the Korean peninsula.

List of research topics

  1. General History of Heilongjiang
  2. Cultural Research Topics of 20th Century Chinese Northeast Borderland
  3. 1580 Years of the Gwanggaeto Stele
  4. History of Economic Relationship Between Chinese Northeast and Russia from mid-17th century to 1949
  5. History of Balhae
  6. Jizi and Gija Joseon Research
  7. Research on Russian Oriental Migration and Development
  8. Historical Theories of Balhae
  9. History of the Development of Ancient Peoples in Northeastern China
  10. Research and Theory on Related Family Names of China and Korea
  11. Research on Borderland Policies of Northeastern Region during Republican Era
  12. Issues of Recent International Migration in Chinese Northeastern Region
  13. Research on Northeastern Policies of Various Chinese Dynasties in History
  14. Issues Regarding International Law and China-North Korea Border Disputes
  15. Detailed Analysis and Research of Samguk Sagi
  16. Research Topics Regarding Han Chinese Demographic History in the Northeast
  17. Research on Governing of Balhae Immigrants
  18. Research on the Restriction and Development of Yalu-river-region during the Qing Dynasty

    Publications

The publications of the Northeast Project include at least the following books, which were all published in the "Northeast Borderland Research" series of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press. All titles are in Chinese.