CONQUERING THE NORTH

China quarrels with the West but expands to the north.

Not everything north of China is Russia, writes historian Mann, author of The Great Wall: The Extraordinary Story of China’s Wonder of the World. Much of it is Mongolia. Beginning in the centuries before the common era, he recounts the history of China’s growth. Inevitably, this took place to the north and west, mostly by conquest, so this is essentially 300 pages of battles interspersed with the author’s visits to areas of historical interest, ruins, and passages describing China’s current policies. China itself did not get its act together without repeated centuries of infighting and then proceeded to enlarge its borders. Neighbors often found Chinese culture appealing and adopted it, and China itself was not shy about sharing its wealth in the form of bribery of pugnacious opponents. It also invested heavily in the well-known wall, which was effective if heavily manned. Mongols under Genghis Khan (1162-1227) conquered the largest empire in history, and his heirs ruled China until expelled by the Mings in 1368. He remains a figure worshipped, often literally, throughout Asia, and his relics (rarely authentic) are tourist attractions throughout China despite being ravaged in 1968 by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. An expansive Russia reached the Pacific in 1639, and the Mings and the succeeding dynasty, the Manchus (1644-1912), fended it off while working to reconquer Mongolia. Unconquered “outer” Mongolia took advantage of the Manchus’ 1912 collapse to declare independence but was scooped up in the Bolshevik Revolution to become a satellite, regaining independence after the 1990 Soviet collapse. Today China dominates its tiny economy (below Jamaica in size, a thousandth that of China). The 3.5 million Mongolians to the north have no interest in joining the 6 million already under Chinese rule, but this is a decision for China’s leaders to make.

Manifest destiny, the Chinese version.