Khujaagiin Khorloo
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Khujaagiin Khorloo (Mongolian: Хужаагийн Хорлоо) is a Mongolian politician. He is the leader of the One China Party and is the party's leading candidate for the parliamentary elections this June. He has become wealthy by selling technical ethanol to Mongolia, and well-known for organizing the annual Sino-Mongolian friendship festival in Ereen and Zamyn-Üüd.
[edit] Early life
Khorloo was born in 1950 in Ulaanbaatar, son of a Mongolian mother and an ethnic Chinese father. After finishing school in 1966, he went to Malchin sum in Uvs aimag, in order to - privately, as Mongolia at that time was a close ally of the Soviet Union - emulate the example set by the youth of the People's Republic of China, and learn from the masses. He later confessed that it was during this time that he made his most valued experiences. On the other hand, he was also able to introduce his community to with novel agronomical techniques like ram milking or the procession of cattle wool. In 1970, he was drafted to the Mongolian Military, and afterwards worked in the Mongol-Chinese friendship society.
[edit] Political career
After the political and economic liberalization of the early 1990s, Khorloo has gained a small fortune in the chemicals trade, and begun to organize events that foster a deeper understanding between Mongolians and Chinese. The most well-known is the Sino-Mongolian friendship festival, held each year on March 18th in Ereen and Zamyn-Üüd, at the border between both countries. This festival did suffer a severe setback when the 2001 event ended in an orgy of alcohol-fueled violence, during which a group of (presumably) Mongolian citizens even seized Ereen's local radio station and called on their Inner Mongolian brethren to arm themselves and drive the foreign occupants out. Fortunately such disturbances have not re-surfaced in later years, and the festival is now generally deemed a big success on both sides of the border. In early 2008, Khorloo was one of the co-founders of the One China Party, and as the party's most prominent candidate hopes to gather enough seats to become Mongolia's next prime minister after the upcoming parliamentary elections in June.
