(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
As noted above, other groups to watch outside the
official nationalities are particularly those so-called
“sub-Han” groups that have maintained local, linguis-
tic, and ethnic ties throughout the CCP period, despite
lack of recognition. Especially important are those
with outside transnational links or large populations
outside the China mainland, such as the Hakka in Tai-
wan and Hong Kong; the Swatow in Hong Kong,
Thailand, and Indonesia; and the Min-speaking (Hok-
kien, Fujianese) populations in Southeast Asia and
Taiwan. Although other local level ethnic differences
are important in regional and ethnic politics through-
out China, it is these groups that have the economic
and intemational clout to make a difference in the
domestic scene. This again does not suggest that any
one of these groups alone is sufficient to destabilize a
region of China or engage in strong political activism.
Instead, I am arguing that, as Rupert noted above,
when the “chips are down” these are the kinds of
groups best positioned to exploit their cultural and
political resources.
Closer attention should be paid to debates in the Chi-
nese community within and outside China regarding
the construction of Chineseness, or Chinese national
identity. Like SunlYat-sen’s\own historic formulation,
the outcome of these debates may determine the direc-
tion of public policy, whether it be pluralist, federalist,
monoethnic, or even racist. At the same time, studies
of “sub-Han” national identity and cultural difference
have become popular in the mainland, with Xu
Jiexun’s (I985) series of publications, New Explora-
tions in the Han Nationalityis History and Culture,
being just the beginning of this important trend (first
begun perhaps with Fan Wenlan’s 1957 collection).
Xu, a historian and political scientist at the Guangxi
Institute of Nationalities in Nanning, has effectively
used the I-Ian categorization as a “nationality” (minzu)
as a means to study cultural difference within the Han.
Study of minority nationalities in China should focus
not only on their traits, population, history, and culture
but, more important, also on their interconnected-
ness——the articulation of their identity across regional
and national boundaries. In the intemational sphere,
this has certainly been important for Tibetan; Mus-
lim-—especially the Uighur, Kazakh, Tajik, and Hui;
Korean (the most educated and economically
advanced nationality in China); and Mongol groups.
Domestically, it has been important for their establish-
ing national networks, often through state institutions
such as the Nationalities Institutes, Islamic and Bud-
dhist Associations, and regional Nationality Commis-
sions. It has also been important for the reawakening
of national consciousness, such as among the Manchu,
who have established three new autonomous counties
in the northeast during the past 10 years.
Population politics should be watched closely. As
China more severely enforces its one-child policy,
minority recognition will become more important as a
means to having more children. In the past, China has
been rather reluctant to enforce restriction on minority
births in rural areas; minorities were “encouraged” to
limit births to one more child than the Han in their
area, but in general they had as many as they wanted.
Now the government is attempting to enforce this pol-
icy despite strong opposition. Minorities are reluctant
to adhere to increasingly applied birth planning poli-
cies. For example, the requirement to limit births to
three among minorities led to riots among Uighurs
and Mongols in 1989 and 1990. Chinese often rede-
fine themselves as minorities. Children of mixed mar-
riages are almost always opting for minority identity,
and minorities are increasingly preferred as potential
marriage partners. This has led to a phenomenal popu-
lation growth of 35 percent between 1982 and 1990
among minorities, while the I-Ian population only
grew by 10 percent. Some groups grew dramati-
cally—the Manchu grew by 114 percent, the Tujia by
140 percent, the Hui by 40 percent, and the Uighur by
40 percent. The Gelao-—a Yunnan minority-~grew by
an incredible 714 percent. The vast majority of these
increases are due to redefining and reregistration of
people who were previously classified as Han (see
Gladney 1991: 240 ff.; Banister 1987).
The administration of minority privileges should be
watched. Both the extent of the privileges—-such as
tax breaks, birth planning, educational incentives, and
economic development investment—and the effect
they have among the majority population should be
considered. In any society affirmative action programs
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268