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Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The region is separated from the Russian Far East to the north and east by the Amur River, Argun and Ussuri Rivers; from North Korea to the south by the Yalu River and ; and from the neighboring North China to the west by the Greater Khingan Range and Yan Mountains. It is also bounded by the Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea to the southwest, about away from East China's Jiaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Strait, due to be connected via a proposed undersea tunnel.
The four prefectures of Inner Mongolia (which is part of North China) east of the Greater Khingan, i.e. Chifeng, Tongliao, Hinggan League and Hulunbuir, are sometimes also considered broader parts of Northeast China, and together with the aforementioned three provinces formed what was historically known as Inner Manchuria, in contrast to the Outer Manchuria (or "Outer Northeast" in Chinese literatures) Amur Annexation by the Russian Empire during the mid-19th century.
Northeast China is one of the country's most important due to its fertile chernozem, producing over 20% of China's total staple food food production in 2020. It was also one of the first regions of China to undergo industrialization, and was the pioneering region during the planned economy era that followed the founding of the People's Republic of China, earning it the honorfic nickname "the Republic's eldest son" (). However, since the Chinese economic reform of the 1980s, which had mostly benefited the coastal provinces in East China and South China that have direct access to export and foreign investments, the Northeast's once-powerful industrial sector has shrunk significantly with stagnant economic growth, mass from state-owned enterprises during the late 1990s, and ongoing exodus of skilled worker since the turn of the 21st century, leading to the region being often referred to as China's Rust Belt. To salvage the situation, an economic campaign named the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan was launched in 2003 by the State Council and the newly ascended Hu–Wen Administration, in which five prefectures of eastern Inner Mongolia, namely Hulunbuir, Hinggan League, Tongliao, Chifeng and Xilin Gol, are also formally defined as regions of the Northeast.
The area was historically referred to by various names. During the Ming dynasty, the region in which the Jurchens lived was a military administrative commission referred to as Nurgan. Crossley 1999 , p. 55. The Qing dynasty used names such as Guandong () or the Three Eastern Provinces () referring to Jilin, Heilongjiang and Fengtian (modern Liaoning) since 1683 when Heilongjiang was split from Jilin.
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During the late Qing dynasty, Northeast China came under influence of the Russian Empire with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. The Empire of Japan replaced Russian influence in the region as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, and Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway in 1906 to Port Arthur. During the Warlord Era in the Republic of China, Zhang Zuolin established himself in Northeast China, but was murdered by the Japanese for being too independent. The last Qing emperor, Puyi, was then placed on the throne to lead a Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After the nuclear weapon of Japan in 1945, the Soviet Union invaded the region as part of its declaration of war against Japan. From 1945 to 1948, Northeast China was a base area for the Communist People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. With the encouragement of the Soviet Union, the area was used as a staging area during the Civil War for the Chinese Communists, who were victorious in 1949 and have been controlling this region since.
Because most people in Northeast China trace their ancestries back to the migrants from the Chuang Guandong era, Northeastern Chinese were more culturally uniform compared to other geographical regions of China. People from the Northeast would first identify themselves as "Northeasterners" (东北人) before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns.
Ethnic form the second significant ethnic group in Northeast China, followed by the Mongols, Koreans, and the Hui people, as well as 49 other ethnic minorities such as Daur people, Xibe people, Nanai people, Oroqen people, Evenks, and Kyrgyz. Located in the Northeast is the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture where ethnic Koreans make up roughly 35% of the population.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Northeast China continued to be a major industrial base of the country, and has been hailed as "the Republic's eldest son" (共和国长子). Recent years, however, have seen the stagnation of Northeast China's heavy-industry-based economy, as China's economy continues to liberalize and privatize; the government has initialized the Revitalize the Northeast campaign to counter this problem, and established the Northeast Summit to improve policy coordination and integration. The region has experienced difficulty distancing itself from a planned economy, a legacy that began in 1905 with the establishment of the Japanese sphere of influence there. The region's once-abundant raw materials have also depleted and the economy has suffered from bureaucratic inefficiency and protectionist politics.
The region is, on the whole, more heavily urbanised than most parts of China, largely because it was the first part of the country to develop heavy industry owing to its abundant coal reserves. Major cities include Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin, Changchun and Anshan, all with several million inhabitants. Other cities include the steel making centres of Fushun and Anshan in Liaoning, Jilin City in Jilin, and Qiqihar and Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang. Harbin, more than any other city in China, possesses significant Russian influences: there are many Orthodox churches that have fallen out of use since the Cultural Revolution. Shenyang and Dalian, meanwhile, have sizable populations of Japanese and South Koreans due to their traditional linkages.
The Northeast is an important breadbasket region of China, as the Northeast China Plain has the largest stretch of arable flatland in the country, with an abundance of fertile chernozem. The rural population heavily concentrated in the warmer southern part of the Northeast, where very warm to hot summer weather permits crops such as maize and millet to be grown with high yields. and flax are also very important, as are wheat and barley. The region possesses large flocks of sheep, and pigs are abundant in the more densely settled southern part. The northern half of Heilongjiang is so cold and poorly drained that agriculture is almost impossible; however, the Amur River provides very rich fisheries, and sheep are even more abundant than in southern Heilongjiang.
Northeast China is the country's traditional heavy industry base, focusing mainly on equipment manufacturing. Major industries include the steel, automaker, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, and oil refinery industries. The Ansteel Group was the most important industrial enterprise in northeast China until the discovery of the Daqing Oil Field in 1959.
The region supplied many of the staff for the Third Front Construction of industrial bases in China's interior.
As a response to the return of sent-down youth, state-owned enterprises in the late 1970s and 1980s often started collectively-owned enterprises to create employment opportunities for the family of SOE workers. This approach to providing jobs for returning youth was particularly common in northeast China.
After Reform and Opening Up, much of the industry in China's northeast lagged in economic activity.
In the 2000s, the Chinese government developed the Northeast Area Revitalization Plan to counteract the economic stagnation that had resulted from an overreliance on state-own enterprises and heavy industry. However, the region has continued to struggle economically. In 2023, Heilongjian had the second-lowest GDP per person out of all Chinese provinces. An aging population and the net outward migration of young workers have introduced additional demographic challenges; in 2023, the population in Heilongjian was declining faster than any other province in China.
The most widely spoken lect is Northeastern Mandarin, commonly as dongbeihua (), spoken throughout Heilongjiang, Jilin, and most of Liaoning. It is very closely related to Standard Mandarin, though with unique phonological and syntactic features colloquially known as the "corny accent" (), and has noticeable vocabulary differences, with some terms originating from Manchu language, Japanese and even Russian language. There are enough differences from Mandarin to give dongbeihua its own distinctive characteristics.
The second variety is Jiaoliao Mandarin, spoken in the Liaodong Peninsula, as well as the Jiaodong in Shandong province across the Bohai Strait. It is phonologically more different to Standard Mandarin than the more prevalent Northeastern Mandarin, and is colloquially called the "oystery accent" () due to the dialect's coastal distribution.
Ethnic Manchus nowadays are very sinicized and speak mostly Northeastern Mandarin, and the Manchu language is almost extinct due to widespread assimilation to Han culture over the last four centuries. Ethnic Mongols tend to be bilingual in their own Mongolian tongues as well as Mandarin. Ethnic Korean Chinese spoke both Mandarin (Northeastern or Jiaoliao, depending on locations) and a variety of Korean, the latter being very similar to North Korean standard language with some local variations corresponding to the regions of North Korea where they share border.
Because of its climatic conditions, Northeast China is the base for China's winter sports. Ice hockey and ice skating athletes often come from or were educated in Northeast China.
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