This article places the emergent Chinese discussion about frontiers into a broader historical context. It then turns to a detailed analysis of the heterodox stances on frontiers that Yu Xiaofeng and Xu Lili, and Ma Rong have recently articulated. The conclusion notes that such relatively iconoclastic approaches to territory still stand outside the mainstream of official policy and elite writing about China’s boundaries. However, it will also maintain the writings that are the focal point of this article have nonetheless begun to carve out a space for re-imagining China’s current approach to territory and nationality.

Read the full article here.