A senior scholar from China's Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has urged the establishment of an original knowledge system on border history to mitigate security risks from Western hostile forces. Fan Enshi warns of the threat of de-Sinicisation in US-led historical perspectives and calls for shifting from fragmented research to systematic domestic theories to better project Chinese influence internationally.
Fan Enshi of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) stated in an article published last week that China should establish an “original” knowledge system regarding the history of its border regions to mitigate security risks from “hostile forces in the West”. These efforts were “bringing more uncertain and unpredictable risks and challenges to the security, stability and development of our country’s border regions”, he said.
The scholar warned about the threat of “de-Sinicisation” in US-led historical perspectives, calling for a shift from “fragmented research” towards systematic domestic theories that could better project Chinese influence internationally. He noted that those circumstances necessitated a robust approach to developing the country’s indigenous academic system of Chinese borderland studies, though “some fundamental concepts … remain unclear”.
Keywords in the article include regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Guangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Gansu, along with references to the South China Sea, Philippines, Japan, and the United States. Fan's views highlight China's push for autonomy in border history narratives to safeguard national security and stability.