Ethnic Conflict in China: Characteristics, Causes, and Countermeasures

Abstract

Ethnic problems are widespread in contemporary world affairs and China is no exception. China’s primary ethnic conflicts have always taken place in the peripheral provinces, where ethnic minorities are concentrated, and occur between Han Chinese and minority nationalities. These conflicts are rooted in a wide range of factors: domestic, regional, and international. Domestic factors include historical hatreds, Han chauvinism, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) destruction of minority areas, the authoritarian political system, economic reforms, and misguided minority policies. Generally, Chinese governmental countermeasures to ethnic conflicts are a combination of political repression and economic development. For the CCP a successful independence movement in one place raises the threat of independence movements elsewhere. Thus, the wisest choice for China’s central government is to maintain stability by adopting less provocative ethnic minority policies and thereby avoiding the demonstration effect in China’s minority regions.