The plight of minorities in China
Author: Christina PomoniAs of today, China has a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, accounting for the 19.7 percent of the global population. Out of these, 55 ethnic minority groups of different size total to 8.04 percent of the Chinese population. The ethnic minority groups with a size of over 1 million people are the Zhuang, the Korean, the Bai, the Tibetan, the Miao, the Mongolian, the Uygur, the Bouyei, the Dong, the Kazak, the Hui, the Manchu, the Hani, the Dai, the Yi, the Yao, the Li and the Tujia, 18 in total. Out of them, the largest is the Zhuang with a population of more than 15 million people.
In the course of the 20th century, government policies towards ethnic minorities can be characterized as an effort to accommodate and assimilate these ethnic groups into contemporary China. At the times of the Han Dynasty (206 BC220 AD), ethnonym was introduced to distinguish the dominant ethnic group in China, the Han. In 1911, the movement for the Republican Revolution appealed directly to ethnic nationalism urging the Han Chinese majority to force out the ruling Qing Dynasty (16441912). In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) employed similar assimilation policies that aimed to the systematic classification of the ethnic groups based on the Stalinist definition of ethnicity that led to the 55 ethnic minorities that exist today.
Ethnic nationalism is the main source of the present plight of minorities in China. Seeing the nation as a politicized ethnic identity defined by common culture and origin, ethnic nationalism shares historical experiences and common language. Although banning any form of racial discrimination is of high constitutional importance in China, the historical origins of nationalism justify the political conflicts between different ethnic groups. Although the governmental policies towards the protection of the fundamental rights of Chinese ethnic minorities demonstrate great pluralism minorities do not consider that they are Han Chinese and demand separation from the Chinese state.
The kind of nationalism that emerges in China has its roots in the political and social acts that create a nation based on historical and cultural ideas, values and practices for political purposes. Despite all the efforts of governmental intervention, the Chinese minorities groups have never been fully integrated into Han culture because they have resisted cultural and political interferences to a varying extent.
At the same time, China sees itself as a united multicultural state, yet united under the umbrella of the Han people, who make up for the 92 percent of the Chinese population. However, eating habits and traditional values are different in Shanghai or Canton. The seven or eight main dialects are as different as English and French. Chinese ethnic minorities gain political significance when they reside in key strategic border regions, particularly in regions that are rich in natural resources.
For instance, in Xinjiang where China shares borders with Russia and Pakistan and maintains its nuclear test site, nearly 9 million Uygur, 1.3 million Kazak and 160,000 Kyrgyz reside. Besides, nearly 6 million Tibetans reside in the Tibet Autonomous Region where China shares borders with India. Yet, they are unified by a different religion, and language than the Han and they oppose to Chinese oppression.
Since 1978, China has undergone major social and economic reforms that have changed the setting of a centrally planned economy enabling its passage to a free market economy. By suppressing collectivism both in the rural and the industrial sector, decentralizing the external trade and employing autocracy to control social cost and avoid social chaos, China has opened its borders to foreign direct investment and attracted major investment inflows.
Today, Chinese ethnic minorities suffer the consequences of globalization mainly by not being entitled to resist the wheel of modernization. By being deprived of economic resources and unable to establish modern facilities to ensure survival and economic stability, minority groups strive to maintain their self-sufficiency and their cultural heritage. Besides, their need for labor, capital, technological infrastructure, transportation and access to information seems to be growing at a fast pace.
The glamour of China's economic miracle, the thrill of its booming cities and the use of the Chinese language on television, in film, and in radio are taking away the distinct identity of ethnic minorities. Besides, useless propaganda slogans basically flatten out all traditions turning them into mainstream culture. According to sociologists, this dominance is the result of a perception of natural hierarchy of the Han Chinese in the political and social life of China.
Is China's prosperity threatened by ethnic minority groups? There is no doubt that ethnic tensions create a volatile situation in China. In March 2008, several months before the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, ethnic Tibetan monks staged the biggest anti-Chinese demonstration to mark the anniversary of an unsuccessful Tibetan uprising in 1959. Protests have been reported in Western China, mainly in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai, while the Dalai Lama has characterized the event as China's 'cultural genocide' in Tibet, warning that he would step down as leader of Tibetans should the violence persisted. Although the Summer Olympic Games were, admittedly, successful, China was accused for disrespecting the fundamental right of any citizen to express their political and religious views; but nothing more than that. Ethnic minorities remain in the shadow of the dominant Han control.
Conclusively, the plight of minorities in China is an issue that, despite any changes in China's ideological policy since 1978, has remained relatively firm. In many ways, ethnic minorities that have their own culture, language, religion, and customs and have been unable to identify with the Han culture, are widely regarded as foreigners and are mistrusted. This, inevitably, leads to the expansion of ethnic nationalism and the growing flow of refugees around the globe.
About the Author:I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.
Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.
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