Mongolia Semi-Autonomous Region

The People's Republic of China formed the **Mongolia Semi-Autonomous Region** in October 2016 by merging the Inner Mongolia Semi-Autonomous Region with the recently annexed former nation of Mongolia.

## History

### Mineral Boom in both Inner and Outer Mongolia: 2000-2015

Former Outer Mongolia underwent an economic boom in the first fifteen years of the 21st century due to its copious mineral resources including copper, gold, coal, molybdenum, florspar, uranium, tin and tungsten. Chinese mining companies moved into Mongolia to acquire these minerals to fuel Chinese industry. Inner Mongolia, home to huge coal deposits, also saw a huge mining and construction boom as well as an influx of Han settlers, becoming one of the wealthier regions in the People's Republic of China on a per capita basis.

### Annexation and Colonization of Outer Mongolia by China: 2016-2025

Starting to feel the effects of the Great Recession, China was eager to acquire Mongolia's copious mineral resources as well as its vast tracks of mostly empty land for Chinese colonization. China combined former "Outer" Mongolia with its existing Inner Mongolia Semi-Autonmous Region to form the **Mongolia Semi-Autonomous Region** which covered the entire Gobi Desert and immediately had an overwhelming Han Chinese majority. Upon unification, the region had a total population of over 27 million including 20 million Han Chinese and 7 million Mongols. The capital of the **Mongolia Semi-Autonomous Region** was Hohhot. China celebrated the "reunification of Mongolia within China."

China encouraged unemployed factories workers from China's coastal cities to move to Mongolia seeking work in the mining industry. The discovery of shale gas in former Inner Mongolia also led to an influx of wealth and Han Chinese in the late 2010s when China began fracking to meet its surging energy demands. Cities across Mongolia such as Hohhot and the former ghost town of Ordos filled up and grew to accommodate the needs to newcomers working in the mining and fracking industry. This colonization increased the Han majority in Mongolia and reduced of the native Mongol population to a smaller minority. Although many Mongols wanted independence or at least more autonomy, there simply were not enough of them to achieve this goal. The Chinese were a majority in the Mongol homeland.

### Solar Industry: 2026-2050

By 2025, Mongolia had one of the highest standards of living of any region in China due to the mining and fracking boom. During the 2020s, China contributed to technological innovations that greatly reduced the costs of solar power while also vastly increasing its efficiency. In the late 2020s and 2030s, China began constructing vast solar farms across the Gobi Desert harnessing the power of the sun to provide affordable clean electricity to China's big cities via HVDC cables stretching across the country. This was part of China's plan to increase electricity generation from clean sources and transition towards a post fossil fuel economy by the mid to late 21st century. This further increased the wealth of the Mongolia region which hosted vast solar infrastructure. The Mongolia region was also well suited to wind farms due to the vast open expanses of the Gobi Desert.