Sum | |||||||
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Mongolian name | |||||||
Mongolian Cyrillic | сум | ||||||
Mongolian script | ᠰᠤᠮᠤ | ||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||
Simplified Chinese | 苏木 | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 蘇木 | ||||||
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In Inner Mongolia,China,a sum or sumu is a township-level political/administrative division. The sum division is equivalent to a township but is unique to Inner Mongolia. It is therefore larger than a gaqa (village) and smaller than a banner (the Inner Mongolia equivalent of the county-level division). Examples include Shiwei,Inner Mongolia and Honggor Sum,Siziwang Banner.
Sum whose population is predominated by ethnic minorities are designated ethnic sum –parallel with the ethnic township in the rest of China. As of 2010 [update] ,there is only one ethnic sum in China,the Evenk Ethnic Sum. The Enhe Russian Ethnic Township of Inner Mongolia is not called sum.
The past century saw immense change in the local administrative processes within China,invoked by political movement,civil wars and the changing role of rural regions. This eventually turned in the sum system in 1983. [1]
In the period of 1961–1983,China introduced the commune-brigade system to locally administrate “socio-economic functions”under the rule of Mao Zedong. [1]
The commune is the lowest rank of authority in the Chinese government underneath the “central government,provincial (autonomous region) government and county government.” [1] The commune authority had the responsibility of specific key functions including supplementing reinforcement to the army regime,fluent connections between party members,administration of economic goals and ensuring correct was carried out in response to crime. It helped orchestrate and maintain three integral organisations that overlooked women's role in society,developing the youth generation and fulfilling needs of herdsman. [1]
The brigade authority supplemented the commune role,through the organisations of meetings that enacted the plans and policies defined by the commune. It oversaw grassland protection schemes,preservation of livestock,the family planning programme,taxation processes and financially supported herdsman. Resources such as tractors,storage houses and general equipment required to carry out economic functions were organised by the unit. The brigade provided resources needed to carry out infrastructure projects directed by upper authorities. [1]
The 1980s was the period of decentralisation and mass reformation within the domestic economic,trading systems and finance. This included greater integration of rural government in economic decisions. [2] 1983 was China's first administrative reform,aimed to restructure the government and establish a “retirement and tenure system.”This aimed to reduce individuals in government positions for long periods of time. [2] It meant the dissolvement of commune-brigade system,reforming into the sum-gaca system. This system still retains the political and administrative functions,however,not involved in the agricultural organisation. [1]
The collective livestock was redistricted to households within the gaca (previously called the brigade) based on the capacity of the households,roughly equating to over 50 per person. [3] This determined the territory distributed according to the size and needs of animals. Native herdsmen were given favoured distribution due to their experience and knowledge. [1]
The reform meant some government roles were united,reducing the number of overall positions within the sum. This reduced total number of agencies from 60 to 50 in provinces,40 to 30 in the autonomous regions and 40 to 25 in counties. In regional provinces within China and Mongolia,“staffing decreased from over 180,000 to about 120,000” [4] This reformation involved a significant time lag in implementation due to the large scope of townships and their cultural differences. The reform was due to the economic needs of China,and increased demand for economic improvement. [5] The restructure of government-based institutions was to redistribute the sum's role in responding to economic shocks and high-level authority requests. [2]
Migration saw an increase under the previous commune-brigade system,due to the introduction of collective hard labour tasks requiring migrants with agricultural background. The shift to the sum system meant the removal of work assignments by higher authorities. This saw a spike of migrants moving back out of sums in conquest for stable employment opportunities. [1] The Chinese State Statistical Bureau released a national survey in 1987 showing that between the years 1982 and 1987 there was a net rural-urban migration of 13 million,in comparison to the 35 million in the period of 1978 and 1982. [6] The old system provided work points and residential registration,in exchange for the completion of tasks rejected by the native's herdsman. These tasks included gardening,supply of food chain,use of gardening equipment,construction work and other one-off tasks enforced by the government. [1]
Despite the productivity gains land distribution was still skewed under the idea that land was owned by every member of the sum,neglecting the arduous nature of agricultural maintenance. The entirety of the population had claim on land property and the distribution was primarily based on size of household members and villager stater commonly disregarded accumulation of skill and experience. [7] This eligibility system increased the worry in farmers about losing land and investment. This partially stagnated growth and reduced motivation to develop agricultural infrastructure. [8] The irrigation system remained unchanged in the 1980s,due to the technical difficulty and risk induced nature of developing it. [9]
The distribution of land caused disputes amongst livestock keepers,as the natural requirement for certain pasturage was not taken into account in the division of land. [10] Farmland in these areas differed in terms of soil types,access to irrigation resources and the types of plants they can foster. [7] The reformation left unconsidered the “indivisibility of pasture necessary for seasonal pasturage”and how different locations change according to the soil type and exposure to extreme conditions. [10] Cultivated was left to waste seasonally and commonly fragmented as boundaries were formed to separate households and create divisions. [7]
A survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture of 7983 sample villages within the Chinese provinces showed that in 1986,“average cultivated area per household 0.466 ha (7 mu),3 fragmented into 5.85 plots,each plot on average 0.08 ha” [9] This method of division has remained in modern society limiting these areas in using more advanced methods of production that capitalise on technical infrastructures. [11] The constant redistribution of land was embedded with additional costs and time,reducing the efficiency of the implementation process. [9]
Before the introduction of sums,pasture of herdsman would shift from mountains to lowlands,in response to seasonal change. The territorial-administrative division meant that within Mongolia,60 sums were strictly in high mountain regions and 40 were in forage dense areas. The homogenisation initially restricted gross pasture produced by each sum and overall health of livestock. [2]
The land currently owned by the Ogiinuur Sum,in Mongolia,was previously used for strictly summer and fall pasture due to the seasons. In 1983,the redistribution of land meant the sum allocated to the land had no appropriate pasture for the remaining two seasons. This caused high fatality rates in livestock. In 1983,this Ogiinuur Sum faced the highest percentage of deaths in total livestock within Mongolia. [10]
The sum administration shift saw an increase in productivity which led to decline in the need for rural workers. However,rural townships that's predominant income was derived from non-agricultural activities had significant growth. The shift to sum administration relaxed restrictions surrounding access to machinery and processing materials,facilitating for growth in production fields. [12] These towns become major contributors to economic growth of China. Their availability to resource allows them to quickly respond to changing demand in the urban areas. Employment in these towns increased from 23 million in 1977 to 52 million in 1984. This heavily benefits farmers who saw an increase in income of 15.7 percent from 1978 to 1984. [12]
Inner Mongolia,officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a small section of China's border with Russia. Its capital is Hohhot;other major cities include Baotou,Chifeng,Tongliao,and Ordos.
The Mongolian People's Republic was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992,located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. Until 1990,it was a one-party state ruled by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party,and maintained close political and economic ties with the Soviet Union,as part of the Eastern Bloc.
The people's commune was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period from 1958 to 1983,until they were replaced by townships. Communes,the largest collective units,were divided in turn into production brigades and production teams. The communes had governmental,political,and economic functions during the Cultural Revolution. The people's commune was commonly known for collectivizing living and working practices,especially during the Great Leap Forward. The scale of the commune and its ability to extract income from the rural population enabled commune administrations to invest in large-scale mechanization,infrastructure,and industrial projects. The communes did not,however,meet many of their long-term goals,such as facilitating the construction of socialism in the rural areas,liberating women from housework,and creating sustainable agriculture practices in the countryside. They ranged in number from 50,000 to 90,000.
A banner is an administrative division of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China,equivalent to a county-level administrative division.
Chinese autonomous administrative divisions are associated with one or more ethnic minorities that are designated as autonomous within the People's Republic of China. These areas are recognized in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and are nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other administrative divisions of China. For example,Tibetan minorities in autonomous regions are granted rights and support not given to the Han Chinese,such as fiscal and medical subsidies.
A sum is an administrative division used in China,Mongolia,and Russia. The word sum is a direct translation of the Manchu word niru,meaning ‘arrow’. Countries such as China and Mongolia have employed the sum as administrative division,which was used during the Qing dynasty. This system was acted in the 1980s after the Chinese Communist Party gained power in conjunction with their growing internal and external problems. The decentralisation of government included restructuring of organisational methods,reduction of roles in rural government and creation of sums.
Hukou is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "huji",and has origins in ancient China;hukou is the registration of an individual in the system. A household registration record officially identifies a person as a permanent resident of an area and includes identifying information such as name,parents,spouse and date of birth. A hukou can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household register is issued per family,and usually includes the births,deaths,marriages,divorces,and moves,of all members in the family.
Zalantun or Zhalantun,is a city and administrative division of Hulunbuir Prefecture-level city,Inner Mongolia,China. It is in the northeastern part of Inner Mongolia,in the southeastern foothills of the Greater Khingan mountains,bordering Heilongjiang province to the east. It is an area which has a number of forests and streams,as well as the Yalu River,not to be confused with the Yalu River on the Sino-Korean border. It is known for its hunting and fishing.
Rural society in the People's Republic of China encompasses less than half of China's population and has a varied range of standard of living and means of living. Life in rural China differs from that of urban China. In southern and coastal China,rural areas are developing and,in some cases,statistically approaching urban economies. In northwest and western regions,rural society is still perceived as lowly and primitive. Basic needs such as running water and accessible transportation are a problem in these areas.
Ewenki Autonomous Banner or Evenk Autonomous Banner is an autonomous banner that lies on the border between northwestern Greater Khingan and Hulun Buir grasslands and directly south of the urban district of Hailar in the prefecture-level city of Hulunbuir,China. The autonomous banner has an area of 19,111 km2 (7,379 sq mi),and a population of 136,832 as of 2019. The banner's seat of government is the town of Bayan Tohoi. The most populous town in the banner is Dayan,which was once Dayan Mining Area as an administrative division and is now the main part of an industrial district also named Dayan Mining Area,has an area of 443 square kilometres (171 sq mi) and a population of about 73,000.
Agriculture in Mongolia constitutes over 10% of Mongolia's annual gross domestic product and employs one-third of the labor force. However,the high altitude,extreme fluctuation in temperature,long winters,and low precipitation provides limited potential for agricultural development. The growing season is only 95 –110 days. Because of Mongolia's harsh climate,it is unsuited to most cultivation.
China primarily produces rice,wheat,potatoes,tomato,sorghum,peanuts,tea,millet,barley,cotton,oilseed,corn and soybeans.
Mongolia under Qing rule was the rule of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China over the Mongolian Plateau,including the four Outer Mongolian aimags and the six Inner Mongolian aimags from the 17th century to the end of the dynasty. The term "Mongolia" is used here in the broader historical sense,and includes an area much larger than the modern-day state of Mongolia. Ligdan saw much of his power weakened due to the disunity of the Mongol tribes. He was subsequently defeated by the Later Jin dynasty and died soon afterwards. His son Ejei handed the Yuan imperial seal over to Hong Taiji in 1635,thus ending the rule of the Northern Yuan dynasty in Inner Mongolia. However,the Khalkha Mongols in Outer Mongolia continued to rule until they were overrun by the Dzungar Khanate in 1690,and they submitted to the Qing dynasty in 1691.
For millennia,agriculture has played an important role in the Chinese economy and society. By the time the People's Republic of China was established in 1949,virtually all arable land was under cultivation;irrigation and drainage systems constructed centuries earlier and intensive farming practices already produced relatively high yields. But little prime virgin land was available to support population growth and economic development. However,after a decline in production as a result of the Great Leap Forward (1958–60),agricultural reforms implemented in the 1980s increased yields and promised even greater future production from existing cultivated land.
Ergun,formerly Ergun Right Banner,is a county-level city in Hulunbuir,Inner Mongolia,containing the autonomous region's northernmost point. The city has an area of 28,958 square kilometres (11,181 sq mi),and a population of 79,155 as of the 2019.
Horqin Right Front Banner is a banner in the east of Inner Mongolia,China,bordering Jilin province to the southeast. It is under the administration of Hinggan League. The local Mongolian dialect is Khorchin Mongolian.
Townships,formally township-level divisions,are the basic level of political divisions in the People's Republic of China. They are similar to municipalities and communes in other countries and in turn may contain village committees and villages. In 1995 there were 29,648 townships and 17,570 towns in China which included the territories held by the Republic of China and claimed by the PRC.
Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms:agricultural cooperatives,in which member-owners jointly engage in farming activities as a collective,and state farms,which are owned and directly run by a centralized government. The process by which farmland is aggregated is called collectivization. In some countries,there have been both state-run and cooperative-run variants. For example,the Soviet Union had both kolkhozy and sovkhozy.
Anti-Mongol sentiment has been prevalent throughout history,often perceiving the Mongols to be barbaric and uncivilized people with a lack of intelligence or civilized culture.
Grassland accounts for China’s largest land resource,covering nearly 41 percent of the national land area. Grassland in the Chinese context comprises widely varying eco-types ranging from the meadows and forest steppes of former Manchuria in the Northeast;and the high,alpine pastures of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau;to the (semi)arid steppes and deserts in China’s Great West. Due to this geographical and ecological variety,the utilization of grassland is not limited to grazing and forage production,but extends to the exploitation of grassland and forest by-products,as well as the exploitation of mineral resources. Of the total of around 393 million hectares of grassland in China,84 percent or 331 million hectares is deemed usable for grazing.