Governing China's multiethnic frontiers

Abstract

Governing Multiethnic Frontiers, edited by Morris Rossabi. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. viii + 296 pp. US$50.00 (hardcover). This book, a product of a 2001 UCLA conference entitled China's Management of its National Minorities, is jam-packed with interesting observations about political, social and economic issues confronting ethnically diverse border regions. Edited by a historian known for his work on Central Asia, promises a historical perspective on question of governing minority regions. In addition to a statist perspective, book gives adequate treatment to issues within local societies, in line with a broader understanding of governance. The authors, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, generally agree that Chinese administrative and economic policies continue to discriminate against minority groups, leading to dangerously high levels of dissatisfaction. The most extreme cases of ethnic minority disaffection with CCP policies are discussed in two chapters on Xinjiang. In first, Gardner Bovingdon argues that system of administration has exacerbated popular dissatisfaction with CCP rule (p. 118), and argues that creation of autonomous subprovincial districts and over-representation of non-Uyghur minorities at regional level form part of a deliberate divide-and-rule strategy. It would be interesting to explore more fully net benefit of CCP policies for different groups in Xinjiang. David Bachman argues that Xinjiang looks more and more like a centrally planned region with a 'traditional' colonial economy and that the areas with greatest concentration of Han have higher incomes and greater government (p. 169), suggesting that distribution of economic rewards has systematically favored Han Chinese. Surprisingly, he does not give space to an equally plausible explanation for this disparity: areas with higher incomes and greater state investment (notably in heavy industries) naturally attract more Han migrants. More seriously for territorial integrity, Bachman argues that it is Han presence alone that keeps Xinjiang, Tibet and other regions in PRC (p. 174). However, neither chapter on Xinjiang comments on how political oppression, instability and economic ruin in adjacent Central Asian republics might influence Uyghur attitudes towards Chinese state and Chinese citizenship. Jonathan Lipman's chapter explores fragmented nature of Hui identity through a series of vignettes of Hui Muslim life in various parts of China. It argues that relations between Hui (as individuals, as communities, and as an 'ethnic minority'), their non-Muslim (or non-Hui) neighbors, and local government are determined more by local issues, conditions and personalities than by any national agenda (p. 35). Uradyn Bulag's chapter on Inner Mongolia is a condensed version of his excellent book on subject. He examines meaning of autonomy in a land where Mongols have long been a minority, reminding us that autonomy is conferred on a region rather than on an ethnic group. Bulag argues that Inner Mongolian autonomy is weak because Mongol leaders do not command a homogenous constituency which can be used as a bargaining chip with center-in contrast to Tibet, where regional officials gain leverage with center by presenting themselves as only legitimate alternative to Dalai Lama. …