Ethnic minorities continue to suffer discrimination in China

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Since coming to power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vigorously pursued the “China Dream” which according to him is foremost for the great revival of the “Chinese nation” or “Chinese race”.

There are 56 distinct ethnic groups living throughout China. The Han majority represents 92 percent of the total population while the remaining 8 percent is composed of 55 ethnic minorities, including the Zhuang, Uyghur (Muslim) and Tibetan, Mongolian and Hui (Muslim) populations.

Xi’s mission is to make one nation and one race. To achieve this, the Chinese government is making efforts to promote intermingling and assimilation among different minority ethnic groups and Han majority. In November 2021, a research was conducted by a premier Chinese institution to gauge trends and suggest measures to improve ethnic relations between Tibetan and Han ethnicities. China’s body for minority affairs felt that this study could be used as a reference for implementing the experience of Zhouqu county, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province in promoting exchange and intermingling between Tibetan and Chinese people.

No matter how much the Chinese government conducts researches or carry out programmes to boost intermingling, if the human rights of minority communities are violated, these assimilation programmes will achieve no success. During Xi Jinping’s regime, more than 200 people belonging to ethnic minorities are reported to have died and hundreds have been injured. The savage attack on March 1, 2014 on Uyghurs at Kunming railway station is considered by many as China’s 9/11.

Though equal rights for all ethnic groups are stipulated in the “Common Programme of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference”, in reality Han chauvinism overrules everything else. It disrespects ethnic customs and traditions and aims to abolish them. For example, the Chinese occupied Mongolian region witnessed a large scale protest from locals against a new directive aimed at reducing the use of Mongolian language in the region. Similarly, China is resorting to similar measures in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for destroying ethnic identity.

Though the government may have allowed participation of ethnic minorities in local government departments, ethnic discrimination in official policies is still evident. Under high-handed administration, every ethnic group is subjected to discrimination. Any interaction with person belonging to ethnic minority is oppressive, defensive, hostile and unpleasant.

Although population mobility and urbanization represent Chinese modernity, the overarching role of the State and treatment meted out to the minority ethnic groups is still drawing criticism globally. The Chinese government needs to understand that building national unity and integration is possible only by embracing people’s diverse religious and cultural significance and therefore, all possible steps must be taken to protect the rights of the minority community and enable them to live according to their religious traditions.

(International Forum for Right and Security)