Ethnic Relations in Contemporary China

Comparing with other ancient civilizations, China has very unique characteristics of a continuing written history throughout a series of successive dynasties over at least 3,000 years. The intensive interactions among different groups in the East Asian Continent in those years finally resulted in a multi-ethnic political entity with a huge population and a special culture-centered identity. In the era of globalization and complicated situation both in domestic and international affairs, the lessons the Chinese may learn from their ancestors should benefit China in viewing and guiding ethnic relations at present time. Around the beginning of the 20 century, when China’s last dynasty faced prevailing foreign military invasions and the risk of possible collapse of the country, the Chinese leaders and social elites felt it was necessary to reform China and started to learn and adopt the concepts of “nation-state” and the strategies from the West for survival. Some of the new political perceptions came from European industrial countries, and some came from the newly born Soviet Russia. Since then, Marxism, especially Stalin’s ideas and practices in the USSR, has strongly influenced the views and policies of the China Communist Party regarding ethnic relations. After assuming the power in 1949, a Soviet model has dominated the theories, system establishment, and policy designing of the PRC government in ethnic affairs until today. This paper will discuss the historical experiences of the Chinese tradition in dealing with different minority groups, try to summarize a Chinese Model of cultural diffusion and integration, and review the official policies of the People’s Republic towards ethnic minorities since 1949. Several issues will be discussed regarding to “Ethnic conflict is indeed a class struggle” (Mao Zedong) and “equality de facto among ethnic groups”. There will be two key policy issues in the future policy designing or adjustment in ethnic relations in China. The first is whether China should continue the Soviet Model to “politicize” ethnicity or return to the China’s traditional route of “culturalizing” minorities at the national level, and the second is how to understand and what measures should take to reach “equality” and social justice at the societal level.