Cantonese nationalism

Guangdong (in red)

Distribution of Yue Chinese languages in Southeastern China. Standard Cantonese and closely related dialects are highlighted in pink.

Cantonese nationalism is a political movement that supports the independence of Guangdong or Cantonese-majority areas (Guangdong with Guangxi and, sometimes, Hong Kong and Macau) from China. Proponents of this movement seek to establish a sovereign state or an autonomous entity that recognizes the distinct cultural and linguistic identity of the Cantonese people.

Historically, the roots of this sentiment can be traced back to reformist ideas proposed by figures such as Kang Youwei and his disciples, including Ou Jujia. Although initial followers of Kang later retracted their separatist positions, Ou Jujia, in his work "New Guangdong," articulated a vision for a self-governing "Guangdong for the Cantonese." Anthropologist and historian Melissa J. Brown states in the book Does Taiwan belong to China?, "Sinification is a basic assumption in the development of Chinese civilization. It supports the concept of " "China" as a nation entity ". She mentioned that this movement could be used to raise deeper questions about Chinese nationalism’s colonial behavior, and she believed that Taiwan's independence would challenge those belonging to China, including Guangdong.

After the Wuchang Uprising of Hubei in 1911, various circles in Guangdong "planned Guangdong self-independence." On November 9, the Guangdong Counseling Bureau announced Guangdong's independence from the Qing Court. The gentry class in Guangdong had tasted the taste of modern political participation in the reform of the Advisory Council in the late Qing Dynasty. For them, the Xinhai Revolution was an opportunity for them to lead the practice of Guangdong's independence.

In the present day, there are some advocates of "Cantonian independence", which promotes the concept of establishing a Cantonese nation-state by gaining independence from China. There were multiple incidents of people carrying the Kapok Flag and shouting slogans representing "Guangdong independence" in overseas demonstrations, or even acting within Mainland China and Hong Kong, against the Chinese government.

History

Late Qing-dynasty

Liangguang independence

In the late Qing Dynasty, internal and external troubles and the rapid development of the Boxer Rebellion caused divisions within the Qing ruling group. Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict on June 21, 1900 to appease the Boxers and declare war on the Eight-Power Allied Forces. The majority of viceroys who held local power strongly opposed this decision and firmly supported the peace faction, creating a situation of open confrontation and division between the local and central governments. After the Qing government declared war, Li Hongzhang (then Viceroy of Liangguang), Liu Kunyi (then Viceroy of Liangjiang), Zhang Zhidong (then Viceroy of Huguang), Xu Yingkui (then Viceroy of Min-Zhe), Yuan Shikai (then Viceroy of Shandong) and other viceroys and governors established the Mutual Defense Pact of the Southeastern Provinces, openly violating the orders of the Qing government and refrain from waging wars. Li Hongzhang even issued an extremely strong response to the Qing Empire's edict declaring war on the eleven Western countries: "This is a misguided order issued in panic, and Guangdong will not obey the edict!". At this time, the southeastern provinces resisted the imperial court's foreign policy and signed treaties with western countries on their own, effectively becoming political entities separated from the control of the Qing government. At the same time, since the people in Guangdong have always had a unique identity and accepted modernization early, the idea of ​​separatism gradually emerged . The gentry of Guangdong suggested to Li Hongzhang that Guangdong and Guangxi should be separated and establish an independent country. Businessmen traveling between Guangdong and Hong Kong also sought assistance from the British Hong Kong government, and the British Hong Kong government also intended to promote it in order to expand British interests in Guangdong and Guangxi.

At the same time, the revolutionaries had been planning to take advantage of the situation to establish a base in Lingnan. As early as the turn of May and June when the Qing government had not yet declared war on other countries, Kai Ho, an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of British Hong Kong and the first Chinese knight, consulted the British Hong Kong government and contacted Chen Shaobai, a member of the Revive China Society who stayed in Hong Kong. Ho suggested that the Society shall cooperate with Li Hongzhang to establish an independent government for Guangdong and Guangxi. Chen agreed and immediately contacted Sun Yat-sen who was in Japan; the British Hong Kong side also began to get in touch with Li Hongzhang.

In early June 1900, Li Hongzhang contacted Sun Yat-sen through his confidential staff, Cantonese gentry Liu Xuexun, hoping to invite Sun to Guangzhou to discuss cooperation matters. Liu was also very enthusiastic about this plan. Later, Liu asked Sun through telegraph: "Due to the boxer chaos in the north, now I would like to achieve the independence of Guangdong, and for this I would like sir to come and help. Please come to Canton as soon as possible." Sun was focusing on launching the Huizhou uprising at the time. His attitude towards this was opportunistic, thinking that he might as well make use of it: "This move has a chance of success and will be a blessing to the overall situation, so it is worth giving it a try.". After June 15, the Qing government repeatedly ordered Li Hongzhang to take up his post in Beijing. Li Hongzhang was on the fence and made excuses to delay.

According to Feng Ziyou's account, in the fifth month of the Gengzi period, Kai Ho "saw the urgent situation and the disaster of partition was imminent. If Canton did not urgently seek self-protection, it would never be able to survive. He proposed suggestions to China Daily (Hong Kong) President Chen Shaobai and advocated that revolutionaries should cooperate with Li Hongzhang, the Viceroy of Guangdong, to save the country. First, he mobilized Li to declare the independence of Canton to the Qing government and other countries, and the Prime Minister shall led the members of Revive China Society to assist... Then Blake, based on the reasons in the book, turned to Hongzhang, proposed an independent plan for Canton, and introduced Sun, the leader of the Revive China Society, to cooperate with him. If Hongzhang agreed with this, he would send a telegram to invite the Prime Minister to return to China and form a new government." Chen Shaobai recorded: Kai Ho "discussed with me privately that we could borrow the power of the Governor of Hong Kong to persuade Li Hongzhang to declare independence; he was willing to speak to the Governor of Hong Kong and persuade Li Hongzhang on his behalf."

Kai Ho's role is to win the support of Sir Henry Arthur Blake (then Hong Kong Governor). Ho first discussed with some members of the Revive China Society the plan to transform China after the independence of Liangguang, which resulted in the "Letter from the Patriots of South China to the Governor of Hong Kong" that was then translated into English by Ho and handed over to Blake. Drafted by Ho, the program known as the "Pingzhi Charter" supports the reorganization of China's political system under the trusteeship of the western imperialist powers. It includes "moving the capital to a suitable place such as Nanjing and Hankou" and "establishing an autonomous government in each province." , "separate management based on qualifications", westernize the judicial and educational systems, open the Chinese market to foreign businessmen, and establish a parliamentary system:

A provincial council shall be established, with a number of tributes from each county as members. The province shall have full power to manage all its issues of politics, expropriation and official supplies, and is not subject to remote control by the central government. However, a certain percentage of the money received throughout the year shall be transferred to the central government; this is to clear foreign debts, provide military salaries, and pay for the palace and the government. The militia and police headquarters in the province are all under the control of the autonomous government. The provice shall appoint locals as its provincial officials and they must be publicly elected by the provincial assembly. As for the representatives in the council, they were supposed to be voted by the people; however, at the beginning of the new constitution, the law was not fully prepared, so they were temporarily selected by the autonomous government. They would be elected by the people in a few years, with the current consuls general of each country as temporary advisory members.

Kai Ho, Pingzhi Charter

On June 11, Sun Yat-sen, Yang Quyun, Zheng Shiliang, Miyazaki Torazo and others set out from Yokohama and arrived at the sea of ​​Hong Kong on the 17th, where they met the warship sent by Li Hongzhang to greet him. Worried that this was a trap set by the Qing government to arrest him, Sun did not dare to board the ship, so he sent Miyazaki and other three Japanese (who then had extraterritorial rights) to attend the meeting on his behalf. At about 10 o'clock that night, Miyazaki and others arrived at Liu Xuexun's residence in Guangzhou, and the two sides began their secret negotiations. During the negotiations, Liu Xuexun said that Li Hongzhang "would not be able to express anything" before the imperialist powers captured Beijing, implying that independence would have to wait until Beijing changed hands. Miyazaki proposed that Li Hongzhang should ensure Sun's safety and lend 60,000 yuan to the Revive China Society as the basis for cooperation between the two parties. Liu Xuexun immediately asked Li Hongzhang for instructions and agreed, and paid 30,000 yuan in person. At 3 o'clock in the morning the next day, the five-hour secret negotiation ended. Miyazaki and others immediately returned to Hong Kong overnight. Sun also set off on the same day, heading to Singapore via Hanoi.

In order to safeguard Britain's special interests in the Pearl River Basin, the British Hong Kong government was also very interested in Li Hongzhang's cooperation with the revolutionaries; it determined to prevent Li Hongzhang from going north, hoped that Li Hongzhang would stay in Guangdong to found the country, and supported Ho's proposal that Li Hongzhang cooperate with the Revive China Society to implement the independence of Guangdong and Guangxi. Blake tried his best to promote the cooperation between Li Hongzhang and Sun Yat-sen. Blake and Sun promised Li that if independence succeeds, they will elect Li as the "President" of the "Republic of Liangguang". In order to stabilize the situation in South China, Li Hongzhang was very interested in this plan, negotiated with the revolutionaries and granted loans. On June 20, the acting Governor of Hong Kong, Major General Gascoigne, sent a telegram to the Colonial Office requesting the British government to allow the Hong Kong government to intervene in Li Hongzhang's trip. However, British Prime Minister Salisbury ordered on the 22nd to prohibit the British Hong Kong government from intervening. Blake ended his trip and returned to Hong Kong on July 2. He immediately contacted the Revive China Society through Kai Ho and continued to lobby the United Kingdom.

However, as the war situation worsened, the voices of the peace faction in the Qing court became more prevalent, and Li Hongzhang received another telegram from the Qing court on July 8. Cixi appointed Li Hongzhang as the Viceroy of Zhili and Beiyang Trade Minister. Li Hongzhang realized that the government might begin to develop in a direction that was beneficial to the peace faction, so he decided to change his decision and leave Canton for the north . Before leaving, he first arrived in Hong Kong by boat from Guangzhou to pay a visit to Blake and expressed his stance to the Hong Kong government in person. However, Blake still haven't give up at this point and also learned that Sun Yat-sen was setting off from Singapore to Hong Kong. He sent an urgent telegram to London:

The American admiral has been asked by Li Hung-chang to take him north ... I have informed the American admiral of the desire of H.M. Government that Li Hung-chang should remain in Canton for the present ... The American admiral has delayed taking any action. Li’s presence in the South is very necessary.

Blake

During the conversation, Blake said to Li Hongzhang: "I think that having regard to the present state of the North, such a movement is very probable and that we ought to be prepared and to look after our interests" , and expressed that Li should become the leader of the independent Liangguang while Sun Yat-sen should be only an advisor. Li did not respond. At this time, Legislative Council member Wei Yu met with Blake and requested the Hong Kong government to use force to retain Li Hongzhang. However, British Foreign Minister Joseph Chamberlain repeatedly ordered that Blake be prohibited from taking any action, so the plan for an independent South China eventually fell through.

After the failure of the plans for Liangguang's independence, Kai Ho continued to lobby the British in Hong Kong about his ideas and plans to transform the Chinese dynasty. On July 21, Kai Ho reported that Blake supported the establishment of a republic in South China. On August 1, He published an article based on this political program in The China Mail . On August 10, he further published in the newspaper about the establishment of an "independent republic" in southern China. article. On August 22, He Qi published an open letter summarizing his views in The China Mail using the pen name "Sinensis" and the title "An Open Letter on the Situation". The recipient of the letter is "Mr. John Bull":

Chinese of different provinces have their several distinctive characteristics, and in the distant future they are more likely to separate into distinct states than to unite into an immense nation.

Kai Ho (as Sinesis)

Ho believed that China would eventually fall apart without the help of the great powers, and that helping China carry out reform and disintegration was a noble but arduous undertaking, so he hoped to get support from the British. He said: "many of her intelligent and gifted sons are most enthusiastic over it.” . Some scholars believe that this is precisely another aspect that many previous studies on Kai Ho have ignored .

Au Ku-kap and "New Canton"

In 1903, one year after the start of "New Guangdong", Hunan anti-Qing people studying in Japan Yang Yulin published a page called "New Hunan". Ou Jujia deeply influenced Yang Yulin's argument. Yang also advocated the dissolution of the Ministry of China.

On May 8, 1905, the Qing Military Division sent a letter to the provincial governors to strictly ban "New Guangdong", "New Hunan", and "Xin Min Cong Bao" which promoted reform or revolution.

After Xinhai Revolution

At the onset of the Xinhai Revolution, key members of the Guangdong Alliance, including Chen Jiongming, Deng Jun, and Peng Ruihai, instigated uprisings within the civil armies across Guangdong. On November 9, under Chen Jiongming's leadership, forces reclaimed Huizhou. Concurrently, the province proclaimed its independence, leading to the establishment of the Guangdong Military Government of the nascent Republic of China. On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Guangdong Province became a province in the Republic of China. In the early years of the Republic of China Guangdong Province drafted the "Guangdong Provincial Draft". This is inspired by the idea of autonomous provinces. The draft passed by the Guangdong Provincial Assembly on December 19, 1921. However, this proposal for the future planning of Guangdong Province did not receive sufficient support, and it was aborted as the Soviet forces intervened in the Far East and the KMT and the Communist Party went northward.

In Culture

Between 1902 and 04, Ou Yujia published an improved Cantonese opera script "Huang Xiaoyang Huihui" (full name "New Bunkan Banben Huang Xiaoyang Huitou") under the pseudonym "New Guangdong Wusheng" in New Novels. The play clearly promotes the idea of Guangdong independence in "New Guangdong", and dramatizes the independent strategy proposed by Os's "New Guangdong". The protagonist Huang Chongqiang is the reincarnation of Huang Xiaoyang, the leader of the Guangdong peasant uprising in the Ming Dynasty. The title of the play has the so-called "turning back", that is, reincarnation. Ou Yujia used the folk songs of "Nine Cows Float on the Water, Xiao Yang Turns Back" and "Big Stone Sinks to the Bottom, White Goose Floats, Thirty Years Later, Xiao Yang Turns Back" to achieve the purpose of propaganda. The plot of this play is that Huang Chongqiang led everyone to lead Guangdong to independence, and Huang Chongqiang Zhong advocated that "the future independence of Guangdong depends on the Si people." Ou Yujia even echoed the Philippine War of Independence at that time, in which Aguinaldo finally decided to bury the national policy of "protecting the independence and autonomy of Guangdong, China".

Japanese right-wing writer Masahiro Miyazaki conceived the plot of South China's division under the Sino-Japanese conflict in his 1999 military novel "China's Guangdong Army Uprising".The plot follows after Deng Xiaoping's death, with the turmoil in China leading the successor Li Bingzhang's regime to decide to expand Taiwan, the South China Sea and India to divert the contradictions, and the withdrawal of US troops from Japan also led to a full-scale crisis in Japan. The protagonist of the novel is a Japanese female painter who travels to Kashmir to meet a secret organization that cooperates with the triad to support the independence of Guangdong and Tibet. China was plunged into chaos, which led to war clouds in East Asia at the end of the century.

Japanese novelist Mori mentions Guangdong independence in two of his works. In his military novel The New Japan-China War published in 1995–2003, Morinaka writes about a plot involving Deng Xiaoping's internal power struggle in China leading to regional conflict, with Cantonese independence playing a role. Mori's later military novel The New Japan-China War-The Century of the Raging Waves which is written in the fictional 2020s, this movement is featured also.

Chinese dissident writer Wang Lixiong's novel The Yellow Peril depicts the independence of the southeastern coastal provinces, including Guangdong, from Beijing in order to protect their own interests as a result of the internal power struggle in the People's Republic of China. This eventually led to the Chinese Civil War, which eventually spread into a global war

In terms of computer games, Republic of China Warriors, a turn-based strategy game set in the Republic of China, allows players to choose from various modern powers in Greater China, including Cantonese, Tibetan, Manchukuo and the Second East Turkistan Republic. The game is set in 1925, 1935, and 1946 in East Asia, and players can choose any faction when they enter. In the 1925 script, as in history, the Nationalist Government was about to break out into war with the Cantonese system of Chen Jiongming in eastern Guangdong. The game's designers allowed Cantonese players to carry out historically altering operations, such as unifying East Asia, unifying China, inter-provincial autonomy, achieving financial monopoly, or establishing an independent "Republic of Guangdong". If the player chooses to build a country as the victory goal, the "Republic of Guangdong" will eventually join the United Nations after the war. The Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China banned the game a month before it was released, on the grounds that it seriously affected national cultural security.

Understandings from different parties

Government parties and official media

At the working conference of the CCP Central Committee in April 1979, Xi Zhongxun, then the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee, raised hope that the central government would delegate power to Guangdong Province. Hua Guofeng, presiding over the meeting, wondered what power Xi wanted. Xi said on the spot, "For Guangdong is an 'independent country', it may take up in a few years. Under the current system, it will not be easy." This speech caused a great response at the meeting.

On September 11, 2008, Southern Metropolis Daily published a full-page report titled "If Guangdong is an Independent Economy". The article stated, "Let's imagine that if Guangdong is a country. If we try to observe China in a new way from the viewpoint of outsiders, and if China's provinces are regarded as independent countries, Guangdong will become the 14th largest economy in the world."

Chinese parties

Hong Kong game developer, entrepreneur, and political commentator Cheng Laprecalled his experience while working in China. He had met many Chinese people who would privately discuss Canton independence, and described the statement "if our hometown had become independent" as something "very easy to hear (from Chinese people)". He also pointed out that people who discussed Canton independence with him often had divisive political views, for example, they would fiercely advocate attacking Taiwan. He described this kind of divisive thinking as confusing to him.

The protagonist of the Li Yizhe incident who posted big-character posters on the streets of Guangzhou to criticize the CCP during the Cultural Revolution, Wang Xizhe, a democratic activist of the People's Republic of China, once recalled his experience growing up in Guangzhou in an article that strongly criticized the Taiwan independence movement. As a descendant of cadres who moved south, he felt the strong xenophobic sentiment of the people in Canton. Because during that time almost all the leaders of Canton's ruling institutions from top to bottom were from other provinces, he and his classmates from other provinces often had verbal and physical conflicts with the locals. He described this xenophobic sentiment as "Canton independence doctrine" and said this phenomenon gradually disappeared during the Cultural Revolution.

As an opponent of Taiwan independence, Wang Xizhe believes that more and more Taiwanese people support Taiwan independence because, like Manchukuo, Taiwan has established a central government that separates itself from China's actual operations for far too long. He believed that if Manchukuo could have existed for a longer period of time, the people in Manchuria would have a "Manchukuo people" identity that was different from that of China itself. He went on to use Canton and Shandong as an example:

Even if it is any province or region of Han China, such as Canton and Shandong, if you let it have an actual operating "central government" that has been separated from the motherland for more than fifty years, you can ask the "ordinary people" there and most people will definitely tell you: they all support "Canton independence" or "Shandong independence" and they are "Canton people" or "Shandong people" instead of Chinese. (They'll tell you,) "Please China, don't invade us!"

Wang Xizhe

In 2016, protests broke out once again in Wukan village of Lufeng, Canton. Some localist commentators who advocate Hong Kong independence believe that people who support Hong Kong independence should also support "Canton independence", because if people who support a "Great Unified China" and sincerely believe that "Hong Kong people should support mainlanders" "truly wants to save Wukan, the only way to it is through Canton independence. If Hong Kong people want to help Canton become independent, they must first become independent themselves; if all the provinces could encumber the Communist criminals at the same time, it will be impossible for them to focus on one province or one region."

Regarding the emergence of "Canton independence" voices on the Internet in recent years, some online commentators believe that some local people in Canton possess "local superiority complex" and "local sense of crisis," which they consider as a form of "cyber-neotribalism." They also view the "support Cantonese language" rallies in response to the Guangzhou Television Cantonese controversy in Canton City as evidence of heightened conflicts. The commentators further state that historical instances like Li Hongzhang's and Au Ku-kap's plans for Canton independence were aimed at restoring unity rather than independence being the goal. On the other hand, Mark Koyama, an economic historian at George Mason University, mentioned in an interview his experiences and perceptions in conversations with Chinese people, noting that Chinese people "are more separatist than I would have thought before I knew as much about the country," especially those from the "Shanghai region, or people from Guangdong and Hong Kong." He also points out that throughout Chinese history, the country has entered periods of fragmentation every few hundred years, suggesting that in the event of a major disaster or collapse in the future, it is likely to fragment once again .

Guo Wengui, a famous Chinese businessman who was wanted by the Chinese government and fled to the United States, once commented on the Russia-Ukraine war and believed that Russia would eventually disintegrate and split into more than a dozen countries. Therefore, he believes that China must implement a federal system and even allow Canton, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang to become independent.

Leader of Hong Kong's localist camp and the spokesperson of Hong Kong Indigenous Ray Wong Toi-yeung, who advocates Hong Kong independence, believes that "if Canton, Sinkiang and other provinces in China are not independent," there is no way to achieve Hong Kong independence. Therefore, Hong Kong independence is also "an ideal imagination for the entire China." Wong believes that “different provinces and different people can freely choose the future of their place and the future of their group." "If different people and different nationalities in China are allowed to truly have their autonomy, only by breaking the framework of Grand Unification can we have the space to think about how to have our own subjectivity". Regarding Wong's views, Huang Yicheng, an exiled social activist who participated in the White Paper movement in Shanghai, believes that independence based on provinces is impossible because "China's provincial boundaries and cultural geography units are staggered." and Wong does not have enough understandings of China's geography. Regarding the emerging independent thoughts and movements including Canton independence, he believes that they are "a valuable attempt to break through the shackles of Grand Unification and build a stable community." However, he also believes that some voices that only exist on social media have not been able to build a stable community offline.

Foreign parties

In May 1931, Hu Hanmin, who attempted to block Chiang Kai-shek's provisional constitution, was put under house arrest by Chiang; this caused the event later dubbed the "Nanking-Canton Confrontation" and the establishment of the adversary Canton National Government by anti-Chiang factions in Canton City. In August, an editorial titled "REALITIES: Recognition is not Intervention" was published in the English-language newspaper "The Far Eastern Review" in Shanghai. The author, George Bronson Rea, argued that the foreign powers should recognize Manchukuo and that the Chinese nation is not a unified entity; in the article, he stated that the unity of China would bring disaster and opportunities for the expansion of Soviet influence. The article also attempted to hypothesize the scenario where the powers support the independence and founding of the Canton National Government.

Would it not be better for humanity if Canton’s independence was recognized by the foreign powers, on the condition that the new state agrees to assume its share of the foreign debt, join the League of Nations, sign the Kellogg–Briand Pact and concentrate its energies on improving the welfare of its people! If we admit the right of the Mongolia and Central Asian tribes in Xinjiang to apply the principle of self-determination; if the successors of Chang Tso-lin can defy the power of the Central Government and preserve an autonomous existence, why should Canton be denied the same right? If the recognition of Canton as a sovereign state will be the means of putting a stop, even a temporary one, to these insensate internecine wars, humanity, common-sense and practical politics demands action along these lines.

An independent Canton, including Kwangsi, Yunnan and Kweichow, will provide the restless and progressive Cantonese the opportunity to show the world and the rest of China what can be done under a government of, by and for the people. Give Canton a chance to work out a solution to this problem as a lesson to the more backward states of China. Under new treaties and guarantees, and a consolidation of its share of the foreign debt, there should be no reason why foreign capital should not flow into the South China Republic, develop its resources and open up a new era of prosperity to the tax-burdened peoples. Intervention, by recognition of the realities may be the only way left open to save China from splitting up into a congery of small Soviet republics tied to Moscow’s leading strings. The battle ground of communism for the control of Asia and the world is definitely fixed in China. Communism must be fought with its own weapons. If the Powers insist upon adhering to the outworn doctrine of John Hay, the Soviet will triumph. The country is too vast, the interprovincial jealousies and prejudices too bitter, to assure unity under one government. Only by the creation of at least four or five distinct compact states can the danger be now averted. *Recognition of the realities is not intervention!*

The Far Eastern Review

Stanford University anthropology associate professor Melissa J. Brown, who researches identity issues between Taiwan and China, points out in her book "Is Taiwan Chinese?" that Sinicization is a fundamental assumption in the development of Chinese civilization, underpinning the concept of "China" as a cohesive national entity. She mentions the possibility of Canton separatism, thereby posing deeper questions about the colonial behavior of Chinese nationalism. Moreover, she believes that Taiwanese independence movement will challenge the view that regions including Canton belong to China, leading to a domino effect:

Between 1945 and 1991, Taiwan’s government portrayed Taiwan as ethnically Han and nationally Chinese, even claiming that it was the lawful government of mainland China. Since 1987, for the obvious political purpose of justifying their distance from the PRC, people in Taiwan have increasingly claimed Taiwanese identity to be an amalgam of Han culture and ancestry, Aborigine culture and ancestry, and Japanese culture (but not ancestry), in the making for almost 400 years, and separate from China for the entire twentieth century (cf. Chang 2000). An independent Taiwan poses problems for China’s national identity. (...) an independent Taiwan also raises issues for ethnic territories under Chinese authority: if Taiwanese are allowed to “leave” the nation because of ethnic differences, then why not Tibetans, or Turkic Muslims (such as the Uighur), or even Cantonese? Taiwan independence could have a domino effect that would break up the PRC, like the USSR or, worse, Yugoslavia.

Melissa J. Brown, "Is Taiwan Chinese?"

Japanese right-wing commentator, writer, and journalist proficient in Chinese, Masahiro Miyazaki, a member of the "South China Sea Issue Study Group," combines his own experiences in China to argue that not only Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and East Turkestan, but also regions including Canton, Hong Kong, Macau, Hokkien, and Shanghai, due to being divided into different economic spheres, all possess independent potential and possibilities. Miyazaki believes that there are significant differences among ethnic groups in China, with people in Canton traditionally exhibiting a vigorous "anti-central government, independent spirit." Combining his analysis of the sentiments in other regions of China and the power struggles within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Miyazaki points out that China actually faces various possibilities of division because the CCP finds it difficult to simultaneously address economic, border, stability maintenance, and capital outflow issues.

After the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes, some Indian media, including the famous news channel NewsX, circulated and displayed maps of China after its disintegration, in which Canton was often split into its own country named "Cantonia". Some commentators believe that this is to deconstruct China's national construction.。

See also

• Secession in China
• Vietnamese nationalism
• Hong Kong nationalism, Hong Kong independence
• Taiwanese nationalism, Taiwan independence movement
• Demographics of China
• Ethnic minorities in China
• Racism in China
• Ethnic groups in Chinese history
• Federalism in China
• Autonomous administrative divisions of China
• Administrative divisions of China
• Autonomous regions of China
• Anti-Secession Law
• List of active separatist movements in Asia

External links

• Xia Xiaohong: New Guangdong: From Politics to Literature Archived 2021-09-09 at the Wayback Machine Academic Monthly