Koreans in China include both ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship and foreign residents living in China such as South Koreans (), North Koreans (), and other overseas Koreans. For this reason, ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship are termed Korean Chinese, Joseonjok, or Chosŏnjok (), and their official name in China is Chaoxianzu (). Korean Chinese are the 13th largest ethnic minority group in China. They form a diasporic community with cultural ties to the Korean Peninsula across generations, including among individuals who have never visited Korea.
Most native Korean Chinese live in Northeast China. Significant populations can also be found in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, with a sizable expatriate community in Shanghai and Shandong, across the Yellow Sea. According to the South Korean government, the combined population of Koreans with Chinese nationality, South Korean, and North Korean expatriates in China was 2,109,727 in 2023.
According to the Chinese government's 2020 Hukou census, the total population of ethnic Korean Chinese was 1,702,479 at that time. High levels of emigration to the Republic of Korea for better economic and work opportunities have contributed to a decrease in their residential numbers in China. Conversely, it is estimated that 42% (approximately 708,000) of these Korean Chinese individuals now reside in Korea while maintaining their Chinese nationality. Koreans in China are the largest or second-largest ethnic Korean population living outside of the Korean Peninsula, after Korean Americans.
Among the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the Chinese government, Koreans have the highest literacy and college enrollment rates and the lowest birth rate.
Terminology In South Korea, the terminology describing this demographic has evolved in recent years to adopt a more inclusive tone. Government regulations from 2004 prescribe the use of the terms "jaeoe dongpo" () and "jungguk dongpo" (). The term "Jaejung Hanin" () is considered the most appropriate descriptor for Koreans in China without taking nationality into account.
Additionally, the term "joseon-jok" () is often used to refer to Koreans in China who have Chinese nationality. This terminology parallels "Chaoxianzu," which is predominantly utilized in mainland China and stands as the official designation for this ethnic minority, as stipulated by the Chinese government.
History Due to the geographic proximity between China and the Korean Peninsula, population migration has occurred frequently throughout history. However, most early ethnic Koreans in China were assimilated into Han Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol populations. Consequently, the vast majority of today's ethnic Koreans in China are descendants of those who arrived during or after the late Qing Dynasty.
Early history After the conclusion of the Goguryeo–Tang War (CE 645 – 668), Tang forces relocated over 200,000 prisoners from Goguryeo to the Chinese capital, Chang'an.. During the 8th and 9th centuries of the Silla period, Korean trading quarters involved in commerce with China existed along the coast of Shandong Peninsula and in commercial towns on the Grand Canal, specifically between the borders of Henan and Shandong and the lower Yangtze River. These Koreans imported exotic products that were already foreign to China back into Korea (Silla). Like other foreign traders, Koreans were restricted to designated quarters in cities such as Dengzhou, Yangzhou, and Lianshui in Huai'an (Chuzhou), with special interpreters and managers. However, Korean traders mostly avoided southern China..
According to the records of the History of Liao (), the Khitans set up Samhan county in Zhongjing Circuit (), one of the five Liao 'circuits', to settle prisoners of war after the Goryeo–Khitan War.辽史第三十九卷志第九地理志三 In the Yuan dynasty, Koreans were included in the third class, as 'Han people,' along with Northern Chinese, Khitans, and Jurchens. Korean settlements in the Yuan Dynasty were mostly war-related. In 1233, former Goryeo commander Hong Pok-wŏn and his followers moved to the present-day Liaoyang and Shenyang areas of Liaoning Province in Northeast China after his surrender during the Mongol invasions of Korea. He was offered an administrator position to take charge of the Korean population there, and in the following years, another ten thousand Goryeo households were brought under his administration. In 1266, Wang Jun (), a member of the Goryeo royal family, was sent to the Mongol Empire as a hostage, accompanied by 2,000 Goryeo households who settled in present-day Shenyang.
The Korean population in China surged during the Ming dynasty. According to the Chronicles of Liaodong (), Koreans and Jurchens accounted for 30% of the total local population in Liaodong.Chronicles of Liaodong, volume 1. Quote: "华人十七，高丽土著，归附女直野人十三" In 1386, the Ming government established the Dongningwei () and Guangningwei () to settle the growing Korean population. Between the mid-15th and early 16th centuries, the Liaodong Peninsula experienced a peaceful and prosperous era. Favorable policies were carried out for ethnic minorities in areas like Dongningwei (). Many Koreans moved from the Korean Peninsula to Northeast China to take advantage of such policies. However, as the power of the Jianzhou Jurchens grew, Koreans began to move out of Dongningwei. By 1537, the Korean population in Dongningwei had decreased by 60 percent.
As the Jurchens (known as Manchus after 1635) established the Later Jin (), military clashes between Jurchens and Koreans increased. During the two Jurchen invasions of the Korean Peninsula, the Jurchens captured large numbers of Korean people. Most were drafted as soldiers into the Eight Banners or sold to wealthy Jurchens as farm laborers or servants. Most of the captured Koreans in the early Qing dynasty were forcibly converted to Manchu or other ethnicities and lost their ethnic identities. However, about 2,000 descendants of these captured Koreans in Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County (Hebei province) and Gaizhou and Benxi County (Liaoning Province) have kept their Korean identity. In 1982, during the third national population census of China, these 2,000 ethnic Koreans had their Korean ethnicity restored per their requests, in accordance with newly issued Chinese government policy.
Late Qing era
Migration Ban In 1677, Manchus sealed the area north of Baekdu Mountain and the Yalu and Tumen Rivers as a conservation area of their ancestors' birthplace, and prohibited Koreans and people of other non-Manchu ethnicities from entering the area. The Joseon rulers were also forced by the Qing authorities to implement harsh penalties to prevent Koreans from entering the sealed areas. These Koreans were mostly seasonal or even illegal migrants because the Manchu leaders of the Qing Dynasty considered the Northeast, especially the Yanbian area, their sacred ancestral homeland and strictly forbade Han and other non-Manchu peoples from disturbing the region. As a result, the areas became deserted with no human settlement. But there were still Koreans living nearby who took the risk to collect ginseng, hunt animals, or cultivate agricultural products in the prohibited area. In 1740, the Qianlong Emperor extended the ban to the whole of Manchuria.
Ban Lifted During the second half of the nineteenth century, Northeast China increasingly became depopulated after 200 years of Manchus' closure to the region. The Russian Empire meanwhile seized the opportunity to encroach on this region. In 1860, the Qing government was forced to sign the Convention of Peking and ceded more than 1 million square kilometers to the Russians. Pressed by the situation, the Qing government lifted the ban on Northeast China in 1860 and lifted the ban on the Yalu River and Tumen River area in 1875 and 1881 respectively.
During the years between 1860 and 1870, several unprecedented natural disasters struck the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, peasant revolts in the south spread to the north. Large numbers of Korean refugees moved to the north banks of the Tumen and Yalu rivers during those turbulent times. In 1879, there were 8722 Korean households living in 28 villages in Tonghua, Huairen, Kuandian, Xinbin areas, with a total population of more than 37,000. In 1881, the Qing government established a special bureau to recruit farmers to cultivate the land and allocated the 700 by 45-square-kilometer area north of the Tumen River as the special farming areas for Korean farmers.
The Qing government strengthened the management of Korean emigrants during the start of the 20th century. Korean emigrants were able to obtain land ownership if they were willing to adopt the dress codes required by the Manchu government, such as the Queue hairstyle, and pay taxes to the Qing government. However, most of the Korean emigrants considered that official dress codes were a discriminatory policy of assimilation.
In 1881, numbers of ethnic Koreans in Yanbian were less than 10,000. By 1910, the number of Korean migrants in China reached about 260,000, with around 100,000 of them living in the current-day Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.
Development of paddy fields in Northeast China The development of paddy fields in Northeast China during the modern era was related to rice cultivation by Korean emigrants. Korean emigrants attempted to cultivate rice in the Hun River valley as early as 1848. The experiment by Korean farmers in the Dandong region was successful in 1861. In 1875, Korean farmers also succeeded in cultivating rice in the wetland of Huanren region in Liaoning province. The cultivation of rice in Yanbian region began in 1877. The growth of paddy fields brings the further development of irrigation projects in Northeast China by Korean farmers, who built numerous watering canals to irrigate paddy fields. In June 1906, 14 Korean farmers built the earliest irrigation system in Yanbian. The total length of canals built exceeded 1.3 kilometer, irrigating 33 hectare of paddy fields.
On 3 March 1914, the newly established Republic of China issued a decree aimed to encourage land development in Northeastern China. In the same year, the water bureau of the Mukden province began to recruit Korean emigrants to use the water from Hun River to develop paddy fields near Mukden. In 1916, the local government of Jilin Province submitted a paddy field farming specifications document of a Korean immigrant farmer to the central Agriculture and Business Administration. After receiving the administration's approval, Jinlin Province started to promote rice production. Han Chinese farmer began to hire Korean emigrants to learn how to grow rice. In 1917, Korean farmers in Muling solved the problem of how to grow rice in regions with short frost-free period. Rice farming thereafter quickly expanded to the further north region of Mudan River, Muling River and Mayi River basins.
Between 1921 and 1928, the total areas of paddy fields in Northeast China increased from 48,000 hectare to 125,000 hectares, more than 80% of these rice fields was developed or cultivated by Korean farmers. In 1933, Korean farmers succeeded in growing rice in Aihui and Xunke area along Amur River, breaking the world record of growing rice north of the 50th parallel north. In 1934, Korean population accounted for only 3.3% of Northeast China's total population, but produced 90.1% of the rice outputs there.
Japanese occupation