China’s borderlands are gigantic!

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Global Post had an excellent but too short piece this morning about China’s borderlands and here’s an excerpt:

In short, China’s most delicate and dicey challenges are often seen most dramatically on its borders. In the regions where China meets the rest of the world, its own ethnic lines are blurred by intense concentrations of minority populations, sometimes dominating whole provinces like Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. Many of these regions have broken away from Chinese control throughout history. Today the borders are strong, but the 14 countries that frame China couldn’t be more different, from Pakistan to North Korea and Mongolia to Myanmar.

It’s no small challenge for China, which, with 13,743 miles of international borders, has more borderlands than any other country in the world.

Based on what I read in public print China does a much  better job than the US does with on its border with Mexico. Here is a small photo illustrating what China has to deal with on its borders with North Korea:

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• Will New Chinese Infrastructure Prevent the Next 10-Day Traffic Jam? (fastcompany.com)
• China’s Discreet Hold on Pakistan’s Northern Borderlands (nytimes.com)

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