evidence: THE Mongolian People's Republic, better known as Outer Mongolia, a purportedly independent country of over 600,000 square miles and less than a million people, is not administratively a part of either the Soviet Union or Communist China, and its location between these two countries lends it special political importance. [...] At present there is no evidence that China is aggressively trying to exert influence in Outer Mongolia, and there is no particular trend of growing Sinification. For example, only 30 Mongolian university students and a handful of scholars are studying in Peking. The number of Chinese studying in Outer Mongolia is even less, although Küke Khoto, capital of Inner Mongolia, operates as a center of some Mongolian historical and linguistic studies. Here, too, Outer Mongolia maintains its only consulate within China. Also, China has withdrawn from participation in a proposed joint Chinese-Russian-Mongolian "History of Mongolia." Planning congresses for preparation of this history were held in Ulan Bator, the capital of Outer Mongolia, in 1956 and Moscow in 1957, but the one to be held in 1958 in Peking has been cancelled.