China's Southwest Frontier Research Of Modern National Relations

This paper attempts to analyze and discuss the most important aspect of national relationships in China’s southwest frontier, political relationships, from the perspective of "national identity" while also using such historical views as "globalization" and "modernization". The southwest frontier in modern history was at the backdrop of modern nationalism in the Western world, which moved towards world colonialism and caused great changes to the modern society of the southwest frontier. The political relationships of the southwest frontier changed dramatically during the extending course of history, from ancient times to modern times. In particular, with a change in the modern social nature of those within the southwest frontier, the national-political relationship was eventually added, thus stimulating national awareness as well as the relationship between all nations (mainly that of Anglo-French imperialist powers) and the southwest frontier. In effect, this increased the awareness of the Chinese nation.The national and political relationships of the southwest frontier in the modern era contain multi-level features and complex subject matter. Therefore, this paper not only intends to use the relationships between the Chinese nation and imperialist powers, but also the relationships between the local forces of the southwest frontier nations and state powers. These will act as the frame for discussing the national and political relationships of the southwest frontier in modern times. This paper then tries to use the arousal and activation of the Chinese nation’s sense of identity and the modern nation-state as the main thread. In addition, it chooses relationship-type field problems of typical representatives as a way to present the main content within the frame. Therefore, the focus of this study mainly consists of the following aspects:First, it discusses and examines the crisis caused by English and French colonialist-aggression that surrounded the southwest frontier and the formation process of this national crisis from the historical view of world modernization. In addition, it explores how the cohesion of the Chinese nation along the southwest frontier formed and developed while being inspired by the crisis of both the frontier and the nation. Second, it discusses the arousal and activation of the consciousness of the Chinese nation at a time when modern China was facing both a frontier crisis and a national crisis, and the traditional national outlook and geographic perspective was in the process of transformation. It was also during this time that the cohesion of the Chinese nation was under pressure from the outside world, and all nations of the southwest frontier as well as the imperialist powers were in a contradictory relationship. On the other hand, this paper tries to present the relationship among the Chinese nation, the imperialist powers, and the feudal government from another perspective; it starts from the religious cases that linked upper and lower classes and all nations in the southwest frontier, and considers the role that their entire relationship played on the Chinese nation’s sense of awareness and the formation of a state consciousness.Third, it uses the modern central government to discuss the political relationships b etween the government and the southwest frontier as well as the inspired sense of nation al identity.During the critical moment when the southwest frontier highlighted its increasingly important strategic position and was concerned with the fate of the nation-state, the central government of Qing as well as the subsequent central government of the Republic of China implemented a series of policies and measures in the national areas of the southwest frontier in order to guard and protect them. Special attention is paid to the local diversion that was taken by the Qing Government around the Sichuan-Yunnan-Tibet border areas at the end of the Qing Dynasty and its exploration on the role that a series of new deal measures played on the local-national relationship, emphasizing its national identity and sense of state identity.Fourth, it discusses and examines the relationship between the nations of the southwest frontier and the state powers under the condition of modernization. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and after the Revolution of1911, the central government deteriorated while the authority and power behind it grew weaker and weaker with each passing day. This allowed the upper class of the southwest frontier to have space for expansion, showing their self-reliance tendencies. On the one hand, this paper explores the relationship among Tibet, the central government, and the British imperialists/separatists. On the other hand, this paper explores the relationship between the local forces of the southwest frontier and the central government. Special focus is placed on Yunnan and Guangxi, which were two places that produced local forces but had minorities at their core. Using them, we will view and discuss the outcomes of the two nation-states, which hold different discourses of power, while also noting how the competition between the "provincial autonomy" proposal rose in all nations of the southwest frontier after the Revolution of1911and how the constructed road of a nation-state was rooted in a centrist pattern of "Great Unity".