China Attempts to Homogenize its Multi-ethnic Peoples

Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongols into the Mixmaster

Noli me tangere

Han ethnocentrism remains on the march, as Chinese leader Xi Jinping attempts to bury the identities of nationalities that were once the equals or more of the Chinese. Racist ideology has thus become an added prop for a Communist Party that had once, even under the late Chairman Mao Zedong, celebrated the languages and diversity of people who had been conquered during the Manchu dynasty and subsequently became, unwillingly, part of the People’s Republic of China.

Ethnocentrism is also having its impact overseas. Recent issues from the US to Papua New Guinea have illustrated the problems that can potentially arise for people of Chinese ethnicity thanks to the actual or perceived actions of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department in using foreign nationals of Chinese ethnic origin for criminal as well as propaganda activity.

The recent history of Beijing’s brutal attempt to suppress Uighur identity under a faux-Han umbrella is well known. Perhaps less well known are what was once known as Chinese Turkestan’s efforts in the last century to assert independence at a time (before 1949) when Uighurs and Kazakhs comprised about 90 percent of the population. Even less well known is that Uighurs have been on China’s borders for some 2,000 years, at times as enemies, at times as friends and through Uighurs’ religious transitions from Buddhism and Manicheanism to Islam. In the 8^th century, the Uigurs were instrumental in saving the Chang ‘an (Xian) based Tang dynasty from the devastating An Lushan rebellion.

The modern oppression of Tibet, invaded by Chinese forces in 1951 following decades of nominally being part of China, has gathered pace since the 1980s. The latest move is now in process with Beijing insisting on changing its name in English (and likewise many other languages) from Tibet to Xizang. The latter is an entirely Han invention which can either be translated as Western Tsang (a part of the Tibetan plateau).

The English and related word Tibet derives from Turkish Tobad meaning “heights,” but it is also similar to Tubo (or similar according to dialect), the word used in China itself until recently. Both are reasonably close to the word Bod, the name the Tibetans use for themselves and there are links to an earlier Sanskrit one. The replacement of earlier terms with an obviously Han-derived construction simply reflects the Han re-writing of history to pretend that the peoples to the west and north are all part of one happy ethnic family.

The third group now also subject to this ethnocentric doctrine are the Mongols, rulers of China for a whole dynasty – the Yuan – in the 13^th/14^th centuries when their capital, Khanbaliq (Beijing) was visited by such noted foreign travelers as Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.

The part of Mongolia which was annexed to China by the Manchus is now about 80 percent Han Chinese due to migration, but Mongols are still the majority in some rural areas. However, there is a determined attempt by Beijing to bury their identity in the name of Chinese “unity” under Han language, culture, and, supposedly, genes. The Mongolian language is now banned from educational institutions and libraries cleansed of many books in Mongolian. In particular, a well-known “General History of the Mongolian Ethnic Group” by a writer in independent Mongolia published in China in 2004 has been banned, in the name of “the correct historical perspective,” a phrase denoting the political and ethnic prejudices of the Chinese Communist Party.

Needless to say, this attack on Mongol identity has deeply offended the people of independent Mongolia to the north of the Chinese region. Its population of only about 3.5 million is smaller than the Mongol minority (5-6 million) in China. So-called Outer Mongolia had achieved independence after the collapse of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 but was then under the Soviet thumb for decades. However, the Russians never attempted to deny Mongolian identity or suppress its language.

China’s current attempts to rewrite history now apply to almost all of its neighbors, whether by sea or land, including in Hong Kong where Beijing is determined to bring a freewheeling polyglot territory firmly under control, economically as well as socially, as Asia Sentinel reported on January 14. Meanwhile, its apparent eagerness to be seen as guardian of ethnic Chinese everywhere, whatever their nationality or birth, is potentially dangerous for these communities. Beijing even seems eager to see anti-Chinese sentiment where it may not exist. Recent riots and looting in Port Moresby and Lae in Papua New Guinea saw protests from China because two Chinese suffered minor injuries. The fact is that the shops targeted by looters were variously owned by Indians, Australians and others. They were not singled out. It is also the case that Chinese have been in PNG for many decades and only relative newcomers are Chinese nationals.

This episode reminds many in Southeast Asia of the September 2015 appearance of the Chinese ambassador on a street in the ethnic Chinese center in Kuala Lumpur at a sensitive moment and was seen as a blatant attempt to interfere in Malaysian politics, leading to the ambassador being summoned to the foreign ministry.

In the US, as Asia Sentinel reported on January 12, two recent cases of China-ancestry military personnel being recruited as spies using ethnicity as Beijing’s entry point are leading to queries about others’ loyalties. That is very unfair and in itself racist, but inevitable when ethnicity is the main tool of the Work Department and one of those of the Ministry of State Security.

Given the history of the past 60 or more years in the region – Indonesia, Vietnam, etc – a Beijing that tries to use ethnicity for its own purposes can only make life more difficult for people of Chinese ancestry overseas and promote the anti-Chinese racist sentiments among ethnic majorities.