Chinese policy in national identity and ethnic issues

In over seven decades of the communist rule, new norms of Chinese society and policies have evolved. Founded in 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) in early days was influenced by Soviet models of ethnic policy, and thus emphasized the right to self-determination for minority groups. In a similar way to Nepali Maoists’ policy of attracting diverse ethnic groups to the ‘People’s War’, the CPC sought allies against the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War (1927-1949). 

After getting to power, the CPC created five autonomous regions Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, and Ningxia, granting the ethnic minorities a degree of self-governance. In addition, 29 autonomous prefectures were created, dedicated to different minorities. As the CPC’s grip became stable, especially during the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), it began to promote Han Chinese cultural norms, sometimes suppressing ethnic minority languages, religions, and customs. 

With the rise of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, ethnic policies saw a shift. The CPC introduced more lenient policies, allowing the revival of ethnic cultures and traditions. Economic development programs targeted ethnic minority regions, aiming to reduce poverty and promote stability. 

If China, where over 91 percent of its population is Han, needs to address the ethnic issues to unite her 56 nationalities, a country like Nepal with 125 distinct ethnic groups and no one ethnic group as a majority, certainly needs to find common dreams to bind all of us together. 

In this context, I came across Xi Jinping’s speech “Heighten the Sense of National Identity and Improve the Party’s Work on Ethnic Affairs in the New Era”, included in his work ‘The Governance of China’ Volume IV.  

Xi emphasizes the Chinese approach to ethnic issues, strengthening law-based governance of ethnic affairs, and preventing and resolving major risks and hidden threats in ethnic affairs. He cites the policy of reform and opening up introduced in 1978, and reiterates the Chinese nation as one family and one single community and the shared identity brought forth by the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

Xi highlights national rejuvenation and common prosperity as common dreams. He proposes making it a major task for the new era to motivate all ethnic groups to build China into a modern socialist country. His recipe includes cultivating in all ethnic groups a growing sense of identity with the home country, the Chinese nation, and Chinese culture. He suggests upholding the equality of all ethnic groups.

In searching for a balance between ethnic autonomy and implementation of central policies, he emphasizes on supporting ethnic groups in their economic development and all-round improvement. In my opinion, this advice is transferable.

Xi upholds the management of the ethnic affairs in accordance with the law. Perhaps this can be a milestone in creating a society where all citizens are equal. On top of all these, Xi advocates safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and encouraging, through education and guidance, all ethnic groups to carry forward the patriotic tradition and consciously safeguard the unity of the country, national security and social stability.

He proposes improving ethnic works by balancing commonality and diversity and by accommodating ethnic and regional factors, with a view of increasing commonality. He says this is the only way to manage ethnic affairs properly and efficiently and deliver concrete results.

Xi rightly points to the need of properly understanding the relationship between commonality and diversity that exist among ethnic people, and calls for promoting commonalities while also accommodating differences. In line with Chanakya, Xi advises always putting the interests of the nation first, and says ethnic identity should be subordinate and subscribe to the sense of national identity. However, he also says while ensuring the overall interests of the Chinese nation, they must ensure the specific interests of each ethnic group. He considers both Han chauvinism and regional ethnic chauvinism detrimental to the building of the Chinese nation as one community.

He suggests “to properly understand the relationship between Chinese culture and cultures of individual ethnic groups. The fine cultures of the latter constitute an integral part of the former. Chinese culture is like the trunk of a tree, while individual ethnic cultures are branches and leaves; only when the roots are deep and the trunk is strong can the branches and leaves grow well.” In China’s case, by virtue of population, the Han culture is Chinese culture. However, in Nepal a vacuum is being created as the established common culture is being attacked as alien, foreign, chauvinist, dated, conservative, and divisive.

Xi says, reform and development should serve the goals of reinforcing the sense of national identity, safeguarding unity, opposing division, improving the wellbeing of the people, and gathering extensive support so as to make our nation a strong community. This view can be applicable in dealing with Nepali ethnic issues. Let’s strongly counter the divisive plots. 

China is pushing popularization of the standard spoken and written Chinese language, known as Putonghua or Mandarin, while at the same time protecting the spoken and written languages of all ethnic groups as well as their rights to study and use their own languages. Nepal should not overlook the role a standard Nepali language plays; we should give a top priority to fixing its hijje the spellings. Nepali hijje system has received intentional and unintentional blows, some in disguise of reforms, some as results of negligence, some as a mechanical copying from foreign languages.

Nepal needs to adopt special policies to support backward areas, based on local natural resources, development conditions, and comparative strengths. We need to focus on poverty alleviation in tandem with rural revitalization, to achieve more efficient and higher-quality development of agriculture and related industry, to build the countryside into a pleasant place to live and work, and to provide farmers with a prosperous and happy life.

The author is professor of pharmacy at Tribhuvan University