Northeast China

Northeast China is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over. The region is separated from the Russian Far East to the north and east by the Amur, Argun and Ussuri Rivers; from North Korea to the south by the Yalu and Tumen Rivers; and from the neighboring North China to the west by the Greater Khingan Range and Yan Mountains. It is also bounded by the Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea to the southwest, about away from East China's Jiaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Strait, due to be connected via a proposed undersea tunnel.
The four prefectures of Inner Mongolia east of the Greater Khingan, i.e. Chifeng, Tongliao, Hinggan and Hulunbuir, are sometimes also considered broader parts of Northeast China, and together with the aforementioned three provinces formed what was historically known as Inner Manchuria, in contrast to the Outer Manchuria annexed by the Russian Empire during the mid-19th century.
Northeast China is one of the country's most important breadbaskets due to its fertile black soil, producing over 20% of China's total staple food production in 2020. It was also one of the first regions of China to undergo industrialization, and was the pioneering region during the planned economy era that followed the founding of the People's Republic of China, earning it the honorific nickname "the Republic's eldest son". However, since the Chinese economic reform of the 1980s, which had mostly benefited the coastal provinces in East and South China that have direct access to export sea routes and foreign investments, the Northeast's once-powerful industrial sector has shrunk significantly with stagnant economic growth, mass layoffs from state-owned enterprises during the late 1990s, a process widely known as Xiagang, and ongoing exodus of skilled population since the turn of the 21st century, leading to the region being often referred to as China's Rust Belt. To salvage the situation, an economic campaign named the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan was launched in 2003 by the State Council and the newly ascended Hu–Wen Administration, in which five prefectures of eastern Inner Mongolia, namely Hulunbuir, Hinggan, Tongliao, Chifeng and Xilin Gol, are also formally defined as regions of the Northeast.

Names

The name Manchuria is an exonym of Japanese origin, derived from the endonym Manchu and first used in the 18th or 19th century, though not itself used by the Manchus or Chinese people. Variations of Manchuria which arrived in European languages through Dutch, as a calque of the Japanese ; ). The toponym has since become associated with Japanese colonialism. Its use is considered controversial by some historians such as Mark C. Elliott, Norman Smith, and Mariko Asano Tamanoi who question its legitimacy. In China, areas once considered part of Manchuria are referred to as the Northeast.
The area was historically referred to by various names. During the Ming dynasty, the region in which the Jurchens lived was a military administrative commission referred to as Nurgan. The Qing dynasty used names such as Guandong or the Three Eastern Provinces referring to Jilin, Heilongjiang and Fengtian since 1683 when Heilongjiang was split from Jilin.

Administrative divisions

Cities with urban area over one million in population

#	City	Urban area	District area	City proper	Prov.	Census date
1	Shenyang	5,718,232	6,255,921	8,106,171	LN	2010-11-01
2	Harbin	4,933,054	5,878,939	10,635,971	HL	2010-11-01
3	Dalian	3,902,467	4,087,733	6,690,432	LN	2010-11-01
4	Changchun	3,411,209	4,193,073	7,674,439	JL	2010-11-01
5	Anshan	1,504,996	1,544,084	3,645,884	LN	2010-11-01
6	Jilin	1,469,722	1,975,121	4,413,157	JL	2010-11-01
7	Daqing	1,433,698	1,649,825	2,904,532	HL	2010-11-01
8	Fushun	1,318,808	1,431,014	2,138,090	LN	2010-11-01
9	Qiqihar	1,314,720	1,553,788	5,367,003	HL	2010-11-01
10	Benxi	1,000,128	1,094,294	1,709,538	LN	2010-11-01

History

Northeast China was the homeland of several ethnic groups, including the Koreans, Manchus, Ulchs, Hezhen, Sushen, Xianbei, and Mohe. The Han Chinese have settled in Northeast China at several points in history, with the first Chinese kingdom to enter the area being the state of Yan. The region came under the rule of various states throughout history, including Yan, Gija Joseon, Wiman Joseon, Buyeo, Western Han, Goguryeo, Xin dynasty, Eastern Han, Gongsun Yan, Cao Wei, Western Jin, Former Yan, Former Qin, Later Yan, Tang dynasty, Wu Zhou, Balhae, Liao dynasty, Jin dynasty, Eastern Liao, Later Liao, Eastern Xia, Mongol Empire, Yuan dynasty, Northern Yuan, Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty, and Republic of China.
During the late Qing dynasty, Northeast China came under influence of the Russian Empire with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. The Empire of Japan replaced Russian influence in the region as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, and Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway in 1906 to Port Arthur. During the Warlord Era in the Republic of China, Zhang Zuolin established himself in Northeast China, but was murdered by the Japanese for being too independent. The last Qing emperor, Puyi, was then placed on the throne to lead a Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, the Soviet Union invaded the region as part of its declaration of war against Japan. From 1945 to 1948, Northeast China was a base area for the Communist People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. With the encouragement of the Soviet Union, the area was used as a staging ground during the Civil War for the Chinese Communists, who were victorious in 1949 and have been controlling this region since.

Demographics

Northeast China has a total population of about 107,400,000 people, accounting for 8% of China's total population. The overwhelming majority of the population in the Northeast is Han Chinese, many of whose ancestors came in the 19th and 20th centuries during a migration movement called "Chuang Guandong". Northeast China historically had a significant Han Chinese population, reaching over 3 million by the end of the Ming Dynasty, but they were subjected to eviction and assimilation by the conquest of the Qing dynasty, who then set up Willow Palisades during the reign of Shunzhi Emperor and prohibited any settlement of Han Chinese into the region. Despite officially prohibiting Han Chinese settlement, by the 18th century the Qing decided to settle Han into the Northeast so that Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares in the region by the 1780s. Besides moving into the Liao area in southern Manchuria, the path linking Jinzhou, Fengtian, Tieling, Changchun, Hulun, and Ningguta was settled by Han Chinese during the Qianlong Emperor's reign, and Han Chinese were the majority in urban areas of Manchuria by 1800.
This resulted in the local Han Chinese population growing to over 20 million before the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China at the end of the Chinese Civil War, further immigrations were organized by the Central Government to "develop the Great Northern Wilderness", eventually peaking the population at over 100 million people.
Because most people in Northeast China trace their ancestries back to the migrants from the Chuang Guandong era, Northeastern Chinese were more culturally uniform compared to other geographical regions of China. People from the Northeast would first identify themselves as "Northeasterners" before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns.
Ethnic Manchus form the second significant ethnic group in Northeast China, followed by the Mongols, Koreans, and the Huis, as well as 49 other ethnic minorities such as Daurs, Sibos, Hezhens, Oroqens, Evenks, and Kyrgyz. Located in the Northeast is the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture where ethnic Koreans make up roughly 35% of the population.

Religion

and Chinese Buddhism coexist alongside predominating Chinese folk religions led by local shamans. The region has also a strong presence of folk religions and Confucian churches.

Economy

The Northeast was one of the earliest regions to industrialize in China during the era of Manchukuo. Many of what became Chinese state-owned enterprises in the region originated under Japanese colonialization, particularly in the Manchukuo puppet state.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Northeast China continued to be a major industrial base of the country, and has been hailed as "the Republic's eldest son". Recent years, however, have seen the stagnation of Northeast China's heavy-industry-based economy, as China's economy continues to liberalize and privatize; the government has initialized the Revitalize the Northeast campaign to counter this problem, and established the Northeast Summit to improve policy coordination and integration. The region has experienced difficulty distancing itself from a planned economy, a legacy that began in 1905 with the establishment of the Japanese sphere of influence there. The region's once-abundant raw materials have also depleted and the economy has suffered from bureaucratic inefficiency and protectionist politics.
The region is, on the whole, more heavily urbanised than most parts of China, largely because it was the first part of the country to develop heavy industry owing to its abundant coal reserves. Major cities include Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin, Changchun and Anshan, all with several million inhabitants. Other cities include the steel making centres of Fushun and Anshan in Liaoning, Jilin City in Jilin, and Qiqihar and Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang. Harbin, more than any other city in China, possesses significant Russian influences: there are many Orthodox churches that have fallen out of use since the Cultural Revolution. Shenyang and Dalian, meanwhile, have sizable populations of Japanese and South Koreans due to their traditional linkages.
The Northeast is an important breadbasket region of China, as the Northeast China Plain has the largest stretch of arable flatland in the country, with an abundance of fertile black soil. The rural population heavily concentrated in the warmer southern part of the Northeast, where very warm to hot summer weather permits crops such as maize and millet to be grown with high yields. Soybeans and flax are also very important, as are wheat and barley. The region possesses large flocks of sheep, and pigs are abundant in the more densely settled southern part. The northern half of Heilongjiang is so cold and poorly drained that agriculture is almost impossible; however, the Amur River provides very rich fisheries, and sheep are even more abundant than in southern Heilongjiang.
Northeast China is the country's traditional industrial base, focusing mainly on equipment manufacturing. Major industries include the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, and petroleum refining industries. The Anshan Iron and Steel Works was the most important industrial enterprise in northeast China until the discovery of the Daqing Oil Field in 1959.
The region supplied many of the staff for the Third Front Construction of industrial bases in China's interior.
As a response to the return of sent-down youth, state-owned enterprises in the late 1970s and 1980s often started collectively-owned enterprises to create employment opportunities for the family of SOE workers. This approach to providing jobs for returning youth was particularly common in northeast China.
After Reform and Opening Up, much of the industry in China's northeast lagged in economic activity.
In the 2000s, the Chinese government developed the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan to counteract the economic stagnation that had resulted from an overreliance on state-own enterprises and heavy industry. However, the region has continued to struggle economically. In 2023, Heilongjian had the second-lowest GDP per person out of all Chinese provinces. An aging population and the net outward migration of young workers have introduced additional demographic challenges; in 2023, the population in Heilongjian was declining faster than any other province in China.