ChiCom policy towards their “National Minorities” (shaoshu minzu) is getting real hard to figure out.

National minority A: the Koreans. Up in NE China, in regions close (and even not so close) to the border with N. Korea, there are districts populated mainly by Koreans. One reason China frets about instability in N. Korea is the fear that a refugee inflow from that country would so augment these “national minority” Korean populations as to make them a problem, which they currently aren’t. So the rule on the China-NoKo border is: Keep ‘em out!

National minority B: the Tibetans. The Tibetans, of course, used to have their own country, but the ChiComs relieved them of that responsibility in 1951 when Mao Tse-tung incorporated Tibet into the People’s Republic. In an incident on the Tibet-Nepal border a few days ago, some Tibetans attempting to flee the People’s Paradise across high mountain passes into Nepal were shot at by ChiCom border guards. Some Romanian climbers shot film footage of the event. By way of explanation, the Chinese govt. said that the refugees were “attempting to leave the country illegally.” So the rule on the China-Nepal border is: Keep ‘em in!

Go figure.