By Ben Blanchard 44 minutes ago
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Wednesday lauded the 60th anniversary of the founding of Inner Mongolia, its first self-proclaimed region run by ethnic minorities, saying the fate of minorities and the Han Chinese was inextricably linked.
China’s Communists set up Inner Mongolia in 1947, two years before seizing power at the end of the Chinese civil war. It has served as a model for other “autonomous regions” with large minority populations, like Tibet and Xinjiang.
They are meant to have a high degree of self-government, but dissidents and rights groups say in practice the majority Han Chinese run the show with a tight rein, fearful of unrest in the strategic border areas these regions mainly occupy.
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