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China could scrap the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture 54 years after it was created. Taking advantage of the fact that the proportion of ethnic Koreans in Yanbian has declined to 33 percent, Jilin Province authorities plan to create a new administrative area called Yanlongtu City centered around the prefectural capital Yanji and grouping eight surrounding districts linking Yanji, Longjing and Tumen, the Yanbian Chenbao daily reported Friday. Ethnic minorities must account for more than 30 percent of the population to merit their own autonomous prefecture.
When the prefecture was created in 1952, ethnic Koreans made up more than 62 percent of Yanbian¡¯s population. But their numbers have declined since 1996, with many gravitating toward the Korean companies that set up shop elsewhere in China or moving to South Korea after the establishment of diplomatic ties between Seoul and Beijing in 1992, according to estimates by the prefecture authorities. By the end of 2000, the proportion of ethnic Korans in Yanbian had declined to 38 percent, or 842,135 in a population of 2,184,502, going down to 33 percent by the end of last year.
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A Korean-Chinese family
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A recent survey by the Heilongjiang Daily published in Harbin shows that ethnic Koreans from Yanbian¡¯s agricultural areas and the other northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang are increasingly moving to Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, Guangdong and Hainan, home to the booming cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai and Shenzhen, as Korean companies establish themselves there.
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Korean-Chinese people wait for their turn to go through procedures to get Korean visas in front of the Korean Embassy in Beijing.
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The numbers continue to fall even though the prefecture promised 2,000 yuan (about US$W250) in child support to ethnic Korean households with more than two children last April. The Chinese government on the whole implements a strict one-child policy for ethnic Chinese, who account for 92 percent of the country¡¯s total population, but allows minorities to have more than two children. But few ethnic Koreans in Yanbian do, since there is still a requirement that a second child should be more than five years younger than the first. The average number of children per ethnic Korean household dropped from 5.9 during the 1960s to less than one since 1980.
While many South Koreans dream of reclaiming the territory that was the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo, residents doubt that Korean firms are willing to invest in Yanbian to ensure ethnic Koreans there can prosper. They warn that if Yanbian Prefecture is dismantled, an important Korean cultural base in China with an area of 40,000 sq. km -- half the size of South Korea - will effectively be lost.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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