Culture, Development, and Regional Ethnic Autonomy: Tibet Issue in China’s Constitutional Framework

Abstract

Accommodating cultural distinctiveness of minority ethnic groups in multi-ethnic states has been an issue of theoretical importance and practical urgency for decades. China is the most populous multi-ethnic country in the world with a unique institutional design for ethnic minorities. However, this institutional design, namely, Minzu Quyu Zizhi (Regional Ethnic Autonomy), has not been properly studied before being criticized or ignored by the western commentators. In the western world, the Tibet issue has been extensively discussed in the context of human rights and “universal” constitutional principles, but rarely in the context of Chinese constitutional law. This article aims to fill in this gap by contextualizing the Tibet issue in the constitutional, economic, and cultural environment in China. It is a study on comparative constitutional law and “law and development” from an “internal point of view.” On the practical side, it proposes an innovative solution to the Tibet issue: detaching cultural autonomy from territorial control and establishing a “Special Cultural Region” for the Tibetan people.