China has been a multi-ethnic political polity for over two thousand years. Due to their strategic location and their occupation of some of China's most valuable lands, the border regions (Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, etc.) have occupied the attention of the central government to a great degree for a long time.
On May 17, Ma Rong, a Professor of Sociology at Peking University's Institute of Sociology and Anthropology, offered his profound insight into frontier and ethnic minority issues in China. Prof. Ma was a visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center at Harvard University from 1990-1991 and taught courses at UCLA and Duke University in 2000 and 2006, respectively. His main books include Ethnic Relations in China and Population and Society in Contemporary Tibet.
Prof. Ma began by tracing the nature of Chinese nationalism. Since the appearance of Confucianism (700 B.C.), the Chinese tendency to distinguish "civilized" and "barbarians" has been mainly based on a group’s cultural achievement. This distinction does not refer to any physical differences, languages, religions, or customs. Rather, it mainly emphasizes the differences in social norms and behavioral regulations. Whenever any barbarians, whether individuals or groups, accepted and practiced the hallmarks of Chinese civilization, they would become "members" of the Chinese "civilization," and then a part of the Chinese nation. Consequently, Prof. Ma said, culture (or way of life) has been more fundamental in China than nationalism, as John King Fairbank wrote in The US and China：
To any Confucian ruler, Chinese or alien, the important thing was the loyalty of his administrators and their right conduct according to the Confucian code. Color and speech were of little account as long as a man understood the classics and could act accordingly.
In the second part of his lecture, Prof. Ma introduced the impact of the 1911 Revolution on the frontiers of China. When China's last dynasty faced foreignmilitary invasions and the possible collapse of the country, Chinese leaders and social elites decided it was necessary to reform China, and started to learn and adopt the concepts of "nation-state" and several strategies from the West for survival. By advocating the regrouping of political entities based on "national identity," the essence of "nationalism" was to establish "nation states" through "national self-determination."
In 1911, the Qing dynasty was overthrown and eventually replaced by a republican form of government under the Nationalist party (KMT) of Chiang Kai-shek. Its policy was thoroughly assimilationist and included plans to teach all minorities to speak Chinese, the incorporation of minority areas into the regular administrative system of the country, and the denial of all forms of local autonomy. The Republic of China (1928-1949) stated that “there is only one Chinese nation, other groups are branches of this nation.” These policies were never fully implemented, in part because the KMT government did not have complete control of the country (and was particularly weak in its outlying areas), and in part because of the intense hostility these policies aroused among the minorities.
In the 1950s, after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the civil war, it came to power with no previous experience in administration or social management. Moreover, given the international circumstances at that time, such as the Korean War and political isolation enforced by western nations, Chinese leaders felt they had no choice but to seek support from the USSR. The newly established central government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) copied almost all the Soviet models in administration, education, economy, health care, armed forces, and jurisdiction. The PRC then established a centralized political-administrative system, state-owned planning economy, and "revolutionary" educational and cultural systems.
However，the PRC also established regional autonomous systems – indicating a stark difference between USSR and the PRC on ethnic policies, ethnic minorities, and autonomous areas. The "autonomous area" system was in practice for all ethnic minorities. The 1954 Constitution of the PRC says, "the People's Republic of China is a united multi-nationality country, and regional autonomy should be in practice in the areas where the minority population is concentrated." The system was established to ensure that minority groups play a leading role and manage their own affairs in autonomous states.
The government has designed and practiced a series of policies in favor of ethnic minorities in aspects of administration, education, economics, and cultural development. First, the central government provides large amounts of financial aid to these autonomous areas each year. In addition, the central government has set up a series of policies in favor of ethnic minorities in education. Students from ethnic minority groups usually receive additional points in national examinations or through a quota system in university enrollment. For the large minorities who speak their own language, the government established an educational system from primary school to university using their language as the teaching language. The students in these “ethnic schools” also learn Modern Standard Mandarin in language courses.
Finally, Prof. Ma discussed ethnic and frontier issues related to today’s China. Chinahas witnessed two-direction migration flows, with Han cadres and intellectuals moving to coastal areas for better opportunities and Han businessman and rural laborers simultaneously moving west. As a result, the severity of the rural-urban gap and ethnic stratification increased. Prof. Ma also argued that when considering questions of peace and stability in ethnic regions, the impact of external powers should not be neglected. Islamic extremist and terrorist organizations have an influence among some Uyghur people in Xinjiang, he said. The policy of “opening the door to the outside world" allowed thousands of Chinese Muslims to visit Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage. Some of them accepted Islamic extremism and now seek to establish an Islamic regime in Xinjiang. Tibetans in exile in India present another difficult issue for Chinese policymakers.
Prof. Ma also asserted that groups in the West advocating principles of “democracy,” “self-determination,” and “freedom of religion” provide various kinds of financial, diplomatic, and political support to minority separatist movement and organizations. Prof. Ma pointed out that the new goal of the PRC government is to maintain its national against “terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism” without significant changes or adjustment in basic institutions and policies related to ethnic affairs.
Written by Huang Fangyuan
