Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 2: 11-46, 2008. ” 2009 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands

AUTONOMY AND CHINA’S ETHNIC MINORITIES:

AN OBSERVATION OF AUTONOMOUS LEGISLATURES

Xia Chunli

1. Introduction

The People’s Republic of China is a huge multi-ethnic country with a population numbering 1.3 billion, of which 91.59% are Han and the remaining 8.41% ethnic minorities. 1 These are the 55 minorities recognised during what is known in China as the ‘ethnic identification period between 1950 and 1987.2

Under China’s Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy (LREA) which regulates minorities’ self-government, areas where these recognised minorities live in concentrated communities have a degree of regional autonomy and so-called ‘organs of self-government’ for the exercise of the powers associated with this autonomous status. 3 These organs of self- government refer to autonomous legislatures (the People’s Congress and

Lecturer, Law School of Beihang University, Beijing. 1 State Statistics Bureau, Gazette of the Fifth National Population Statistics of PRC (No. 1, 2001), available at http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/rkpcgb/qgrkpcgb/t20020331_15434.htm. 2 Ethnic identification involved surveys after 1950 after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Academics as well as Communist Party cadres working on minority issues were sent to minority ethnic areas to promote the Chinese Communist Party’s ethnic policies, and to record minority characteristics. The criteria used for identification were Stalin’s four elements of a ‘nation’, i.e., a common language, common territory, common economic life, and common psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. It is through this process of ethnic identification that China imposed the officially existing minority identities. See Huang Guangxue and Shi Lianzhu (eds.), China’s Ethnic Identification: The Origin of the 56 Ethnic Groups (Zhongguo De Minzu Shibie: 56 Ge Minzu De Laili), Ethnic Publishing House, Beijing, 2005, p. 63. 3 Preface of the LREA. 12 Autonomy and China’s Ethnic Minorities its standing committee) and governments (the People’s Government) at the levels of regions, prefectures and counties.4

The LREA provides for considerable political, economic and cultural rights for these minorities with autonomous structures and powers within certain areas of jurisdiction.5 Under the LREA, autonomous legislatures have powers over local ethnic affairs such as the use of minority languages, economic construction, natural resources management, fiscal arrangement and education. The actual implementation of these autonomous legislative powers is both critical in terms of the content of regional ethnic autonomy (REA) and an indicator for assessing the extent to which minorities in China are enjoying autonomy. By focusing legislation on natural resources distribution and the position of minority languages in education as two examples, this article aims to assess the extent these powers are effectively used. The former is considered as resources are often the cornerstone for local development and prosperity and resource distribution and usage by the Central and local governments reflects the power demarcation and balance between the two levels of authorities, and thus allows for the measure of actual autonomy enjoyed by the local government. As for the latter, languages are more than a means of communication among many minorities: they are also a component of their cultural heritage and their very identity. The issue of language maintenance and thus identity is at the same time intimately linked in modern societies to the formal education, which today has a far-reaching influence upon people’s lifestyle. The extent to which minorities can use their own language in the formal education system indicates whether diversity is actually encouraged, whether minority cultures are genuinely preserved, whether their identity as transmitted through language is in practice respected, and the degree of control and autonomy minorities truly have in this vital area.

4 China’s political structure consists of five levels: the Central level, the provincial level, the municipal level, the county level and the township level. Each level has its government (the people’s government) and legislature (the people’s congress). Minorities’ self- government exists in autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties/banners. The autonomous region is on the provincial level. The autonomous prefecture is on the municipal level. The autonomous county/banner is on the county level. 5 Chapter 3 of the LREA.