“We are One People”: White Papers as a Tool to Promote National Unity in the PRC

Abstract

This article studies the role of "white books" in the system of ethnic propaganda in the PRC, as well as their significance in the mechanism of indoctrination of the bureaucracy. This topic has been little studied in the domestic historiography, and few works have been published in the Western literature. China has established a ramified system of propaganda organs, both vertically subordinated and not directly subordinated to the central party-state organs. Ethno-ethnic propaganda organizations have been set up within the overall system, primarily the United Front Department and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, using both internal and external propaganda channels. “White papers” are an important link in external ethnic propaganda. These materials present the territories of non-Han nationalities as regions that have been part of the Chinese empire and later the modern PRC since ancient times. The Chinese state actively protects the rights of ethnic minorities, develops the institution of ethnic minorities’ regional autonomy and promotes social and economic development of ethnic areas. Only minor extremist groups and religious radicals, supported from abroad, seek to undermine inter-ethnic unity in order to divide China. Hence the need to strengthen the unity of the nationalities. Another purpose of publishing “white papers” is to indoctrinate the bureaucracy, which has lost its "fighting spirit" during the years of reform, especially in the 1990s and 2000s. With a certain pluralism of approaches to the assessment of PRC ethnopolitics and the institution of ethnic minorities’ regional autonomy in the academic environment, the confirmation of the invariability of the official party doctrine contributes to the mobilization of ethnic elites and ganbu.