Xikang: Difference between revisions

Xikang Province
西康省
Xikang Province 西康省
Province of the People's Republic of China (1950–1955)
1950–1955
	; Xikang Province (orange) in the People's Republic of China
Capital	Kangding (1950-1951) ; Ya'an (1951-1955)
Area
• 1953	451,521 km2 (174,333 sq mi)
Population
• 1953	3,381,064
Historical era	20th century
• Established	1950
• Disestablished	1955
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Xikang
Sichuan
Tibet Autonomous Region
Today part of	China; India

Xikang Province
西康省
Xikang Province 西康省
Province of the Republic of China (1939–1950)
1939–1950
	; Xikang Province in the Republic of China, light blue under control of Chinese warlord
Capital	Kangding (1912-1931); Ba'an (1931-1935); Ya'an (1935-1936); Kangding (1935-1949); Xichang (1949-1950)
Area
• Estimate	451,521 km2 (174,333 sq mi)
Population
• Estimate	1,748,458
Historical era	20th century
• Established	1939
• Fall of Xichang	27 March 1950
• Disestablished	1950
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Chuanbian Special Region
Xikang
Chamdo Region
Today part of	China; India

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Revision as of 06:34, 22 October 2021

Xikang (also Sikang or Hsikang) was an illusory province^[1] formed by the Republic of China in 1939 on the initiative of prominent Sichuan warlord Liu Wenhui^[2] and continued by the early People's Republic of China. It comprised most of the Kham region, where the Khampa, a subgroup of the Tibetan people, live. The then independent Tibet controlled the portion of Kham west of the Upper Yangtze River.^[3] The nominal Xikang province also included in the south the Assam Himalayan region (Arunachal Pradesh) that Tibet had recognised as a part of British India by the 1914 McMahon Line agreement.^[4] The eastern part of the province was inhabited by a number of different ethnic groups, such as Han Chinese, Yi, Qiang people and Tibetan, then known as Chuanbian (川邊), a special administrative region of the Republic of China. In 1939, it became the new Xikang province with the additional territories belonging to Tibetan and British control added in. After the People's Republic of China invaded and occupied Tibet, the earlier nationalist imagination of Xikang came to fruition.

The provincial capital of Xikang was Kangding from 1939 to 1951 and Ya'an from 1951 to 1955. The province had a population of 3.4 million in 1954.^[5]

History

In 1910, general Zhao Erfang occupied Kham region, destroyed a few monasteries and killed over 1000 lamas. Later on, he proclaimed this territory as a new Chinese province subsequently known as Xikang.

Following the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911 which led to the downfall of the Qing dynasty, this region^[which?] was established as the Chuanbian Special Administrative District (川邊特別行政區) by the newly founded Republic of China.

In June 1930 this region^[which?] was invaded by the army of Tibet, precipitating the Sino-Tibetan War. With the district locked in internal struggles, no reinforcements were sent to support the Sichuanese troops stationed here. As a result, the Tibetan army captured, without encountering much resistance, Garze and Xinlong Counties. When a negotiated ceasefire failed, Tibetan forces expanded the war attempting to capture parts of southern Qinghai province. In March 1932 their force invaded Qinghai but was defeated by the local Hui warlord Ma Bufang in July, routing the Tibetan army and driving it back to this district.

The Hui army captured counties that had fallen into the hands of the Tibetan army since 1919. Their victories threatened the supply lines to the Tibetan forces in Garze and Xinlong. As a result, part of the Tibetan army was forced to withdraw.

In 1932 Liu Wenhui in cooperation with the Qinghai army, sent out a brigade to attack the Tibetan troops in Garze and Xinlong, eventually occupying them, Dêgê and other counties east of the Jinshajiang River. The 1934 Khamba Rebellion led by the Pandatsang family broke out against the Tibetan government in Lhasa. The Khampa revolutionary leader Pandatsang Rapga was involved.

In January 1939, the Chuanbian Special Administrative District officially became a province of the Republic, the Hsikang Province. Kesang Tsering was sent by the Chinese to Batang to take control of Sikang, where he formed a local government. He was sent there for the purpose of propagating the Three Principles of the People to the Khampa.^[6]

In 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, Xikang was split along the Yangtze into Sikang to the east and a separate Chamdo Territory (昌都地区) to the west. Chamdo was merged into Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965. The rest of Hsikang was merged into Sichuan in 1955.

Administrative divisions

1939-1950

Name	Administrative Seat	Traditional Chinese	Subdivisions	Comments
First Administrative Circuit	Kangding County	第一行政督察區	4 counties, 1 bureau	Later the Xikang Province Tibetan Autonomous Region
Second Administrative Circuit	Yingjing County	第二行政督察區	7 counties	Later the Ya'an Division
Third Administrative Circuit	Xichang County	第三行政督察區	9 counties, 3 bureaus	Later the XIchang Division
Fourth Administrative Circuit	Garzê County	第四行政督察區	15 counties	Later the Xikang Province Tibetan Autonomous Region
Fifth Administrative Circuit	—	第五行政督察區	13 counties	Chamdo Region; de facto controlled by Tibet

1950–1955

Name	Simplified Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Subdivisions
Ya'an (1951-1955)	雅安市	Yǎ'ān shì	1 city Ya'an
Ya'an Division	雅安专区	Yǎ'ān Zhuānqū	8 counties Ya'an (1950-1951), Baoxing, Lushan, Tianquan, Yingjing, Hanyuan, Mingshan (1951-1955), Shimian (1951-1955)
Xichang Division	西昌专区	Xīchāng Zhuānqū	13 counties Xichang, Yanyuan, Yanbian, Huili, Ningnan, Dechang, Zhaojue (1950-1952), Yuexi, Mianning, Jinkang (1952-1955), Muli (1952-1955), Miyi (1952-1955), Huidong 3 bureaus Puge (1950-1952), Ningdong (1950-1952), Luoning (1950-1952)
Xikang Province Tibetan Autonomous Region	西康省藏族自治区	Xīkāng Shěng Zàngzú Zìzhìqū	20 counties direct controlled Kangding, Danba, Qianning, Yajiang, Luding, Jiulong 1 bureau Jintang Ganzi Regional Office (1951-1955) Ganzi, Shiqi, Dengke, Dege, Baiyu, Zhanghua→Xinlong, Luhuo, Daofu Litang Regional Office (1951-1955) Litang, Batang, Derong, Dingxiang→Xiangcheng, Daocheng, Yidun
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Region (1952-1955)	凉山彝族自治区	Liángshān Yízú Zìzhìqū	8 counties Zhaojue, Puge, Ningdong, Xide, Butuo, Jinyang, Meigu, Puxiong

List of governors

Kuomintang (Nationalist) Communist Party of China

Chairperson of the Provincial Government

No.	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Political party
style="background:Template:Kuomintang/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2\| 1	Liu Wenhui 劉文輝 Liú Wénhuī (1895–1976)	1 January 1939	9 December 1949	Kuomintang
Defected to the Communists.
style="background:Template:Kuomintang/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2\| 2	Liu Wenhui 劉文輝 Liú Wénhuī (1895–1976)		Ho Kuo-kuang 賀國光 Hè Guóguāng (1885–1969)	25 December 1949	March 1950	Kuomintang
Fled to Taiwan via Haikou after fall of Xichang.			Ho Kuo-kuang 賀國光 Hè Guóguāng (1885–1969)

Xikang CPC Party Committee Secretary

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Political party
style="background:Template:Communist Party of China/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2\| 1		Liao Zhigao 廖志高 Liào Zhìgāo (1913–2000)	1950	1955	Communist Party of China
Province abolished.

Xikang People's Government Chairperson (Governor after January 1955)

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Political party
style="background:Template:Communist Party of China/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2\| 1		Liao Zhigao 廖志高 Liào Zhìgāo (1913–2000)	26 April 1950	September 1955	Communist Party of China
Province abolished.

References

^ Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 30: "Despite its almost entirely illusory nature, the so-called Xikang province was officially sketched out by Chinese map-makers, from whom it came to be known nation-wide.
^ Yajun Mo, "The New Frontier: Zhuang Xueben and Xikang Province", in "Chinese History in Geographical Perspective", edited by Yongtao Du and Jeff Kyong-McClain, p. 124, Lexington Books, 2013
^ Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 29: "According to the Kuomintang, the boundary of this new Xikang province encompassed, not only part of the southwestern province of Sichuan that was then dominated by the Han Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui, but also a huge portion of the ethnographic Tibetan area west of the Upper Yangtze River that was then effectively administered by the autonomous Tibetan government."
^ Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 29: "In addition, the newly carved provincial boundary also extended deep into the Tibetan-Assam tribal territory, including areas south of the theoretically existing McMahon Line that had been signed away to British India by Lhasa in 1914."
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 5, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Hsiao-ting Lin (2010). Modern China's ethnic frontiers: a journey to the west. Vol. Volume 67 of Routledge studies in the modern history of Asia (illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3. Retrieved 2011-12-27. area and spreading Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principle among the Tibetan and Khampa minorities, Kesang Tsering set up a field headquarters in Batang (Pa'an). There he appointed his own Xikang provincial government staff and issued an {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

Bibliography

Lin, Hsiao-ting (2004), "Boundary, sovereignty, and imagination: Reconsidering the frontier disputes between British India and Republican China, 1914–47", The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 32 (3): 25–47, doi:10.1080/0308653042000279650, S2CID 159560382
Lin, Hsiao-ting (2010). Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A journey to the west. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3.

[1] Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 30: "Despite its almost entirely illusory nature, the so-called Xikang province was officially sketched out by Chinese map-makers, from whom it came to be known nation-wide.

[2] Yajun Mo, "The New Frontier: Zhuang Xueben and Xikang Province", in "Chinese History in Geographical Perspective", edited by Yongtao Du and Jeff Kyong-McClain, p. 124, Lexington Books, 2013

[3] Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 29: "According to the Kuomintang, the boundary of this new Xikang province encompassed, not only part of the southwestern province of Sichuan that was then dominated by the Han Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui, but also a huge portion of the ethnographic Tibetan area west of the Upper Yangtze River that was then effectively administered by the autonomous Tibetan government."

[4] Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination (2004), p. 29: "In addition, the newly carved provincial boundary also extended deep into the Tibetan-Assam tribal territory, including areas south of the theoretically existing McMahon Line that had been signed away to British India by Lhasa in 1914."

[5] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 5, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[6] Hsiao-ting Lin (2010). Modern China's ethnic frontiers: a journey to the west. Vol. Volume 67 of Routledge studies in the modern history of Asia (illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3. Retrieved 2011-12-27. area and spreading Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principle among the Tibetan and Khampa minorities, Kesang Tsering set up a field headquarters in Batang (Pa'an). There he appointed his own Xikang provincial government staff and issued an {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

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@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 {{harvp|Lin, Boundary, sovereignty and imagination|2004|p=29}}: "In addition, the newly carved provincial boundary also extended deep into the Tibetan-Assam tribal territory, including areas south of the theoretically existing McMahon Line that had been signed away to British India by Lhasa in 1914."
 </ref>
-The eastern part of the province was inhabited by a number of different ethnic groups, such as [[Han Chinese]], [[Yi people|Yi]], [[Qiang people]] and Tibetan, then known as ''Chuanbian'' ({{lang|zh|川邊}}), a [[Special administrative regions of China#ROC special administrative regions|special administrative region]] of the Republic of China. In 1939, it became the new Xikang province with the additional territories belonging to Tibetan and British control added in. After the People's Republic of China invaded and occupied Tibet, the earlier nationalist imagination of Xikang came to fruition.
+The eastern part of the province was inhabited by a number of different ethnic groups, such as [[Han Chinese]], [[Yi people|Yi]], [[Qiang people]] and Tibetan, then known as ''Chuanbian'' ({{lang|zh|川邊}}), a [[Special administrative regions of China#Defunct SARs|special administrative region]] of the Republic of China. In 1939, it became the new Xikang province with the additional territories belonging to Tibetan and British control added in. After the People's Republic of China invaded and occupied Tibet, the earlier nationalist imagination of Xikang came to fruition.
 The provincial capital of Xikang was [[Kangding]] from 1939 to 1951 and [[Ya'an]] from 1951 to 1955. The province had a population of 3.4 million in 1954.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/rkpcgb/qgrkpcgb/t20020404_16767.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=November 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090805174810/http://www.stats.gov.cn/TJGB/RKPCGB/qgrkpcgb/t20020404_16767.htm |archive-date=August 5, 2009 }}</ref>

v t e Defunct provincial divisions of the People's Republic of China
Greater administrative region	Huabei Region Dongbei Region Huadong Region Zhongnan Region Xibei Region Xinan Region
Provinces	Andong → Liaodong Liaoxi Pingyuan Qahar Rehe Songjiang Suiyuan Xikang
Municipalities	Anshan Benxi Changchun Fushun Guangzhou Harbin Lüda Nanjing Shenyang Xi'an
Administrative territories	Chuanbei Chuandong Chuannan Chuanxi Subei Sunan Wanbei Wannan Lüda
Other provincial divisions	Chamdo Region

v t e Provinces of the Republic of China
Fukien Taiwan
Claimed	Antung Chahar Chekiang Hokiang Hsingan Jehol Liaopeh Nunkiang Sikang Sungkiang Suiyuan Tibet Yunnan
All provincial-level administration abolished

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