With Scotland opting to remain within the United Kingdom, in a divisive referendum, several governments in this part of the world must be quite relieved. Secessionist movements, some peaceful, others less so, are well documented in Asia.
Historically, a divided China was always accompanied by warfare and chaos, a situation that has informed the traditional and contemporary Chinese obsession with a unified state.
In the modern era, however, at least two political entities declared their independence and broke away from China. One was the short-lived Republic of Formosa (May 23 to October 21, 1895), which was Taiwan's response to China surrendering the island to Japan following its defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war. It ended when Japanese troops landed and took control of Taiwan.
The other secession was permanent. After the Qing dynasty ended, in 1911, Outer Mongolia, which had been part of China for at least 200 years, declared independence. The new state was subsequently invaded by the Chinese and then the White Russians. Finally, on July 11, 1921, supported by Bolshevik Russians, Mongolian independence was declared. But it was only in October 1949, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, that Beijing formally recognised Mongolia as an independent state.
Today, Mongolia is no longer regarded as an "inalienable" part of China, even though it had been so several times.