Made in China – assimilating ethnic minorities in the 21st century An examination of Xi Jinping’s efforts to sinicise ethnic minorities in China through framing Wiam Lena Khalid Jamel JONATHAN BARTLETT ILLUSTRATION FOR FOREIGN POLICY Department of Political Science Independent Research Project in Political Science – SV7052, (30 credits) Autumn term 2020 Supervisor: Johan Lagerkvist Word count: 20 715 words Abstract The study aims to analyse how China, under the Xi Jinping administration, assimilates its ethnic minorities by exploring white papers' underlying motives. The ambition is to understand China’s actions and how they can affect the future. The research asks three questions: How does China frame ethnic minorities in white papers? What arguments are used to justify assimilation and sinicisation? How and why is China assimilating its ethnic minorities now? The results show that China depicts ethnic minorities through two accounts, oneness and backwardness. The former stresses the significance of unity within ethnic minorities and between ethnic groups. The latter describes the condition that ethnic minorities end up in if they do not conform to China’s socialist values. One can be stuck by backwardness if one follows declared enemies or shows signs of separatism, terrorism and religious extremism. The results reveal how China uses ‘war on terror’ and modernisation narratives to justify its assimilation and sinicisation acts. The results also point to three areas where ethnic minorities can stick to backwardness and should, therefore, assimilate Han Chinese. These are language, religion and employment. The study reveals that the CPC and Xi Jinping intend to fix anything that disturbs them from realising the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. Consequently, China’s attempt to attain uniformity means that anything which may be prioritised above the party must be eradicated or sinicised. Keywords: Ethnic policy, assimilation, sinicisation, China, Xi Jinping, framing theory. Contents Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research problem ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Aim and research questions ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Disposition ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Ethnic policies in the PRC .................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Ethnic policies before Xi era ..................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Mao era 1949–1976 ............................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.2 Deng era 1976–1989 ............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1.3 Jiang era 1989–2002 .............................................................................................................................................. 6 2.1.4 Hu era 2002–2012 ................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Xi’s ethnic policies, 2012–present ............................................................................................................................ 7 3. Previous research .................................................................................................................................. 12 3.1 Framing studies ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Ethnic minority policy .............................................................................................................................................. 14 3.2.1 Influential researchers in the field of ethnic policies in China ..................................................................... 15 3.3 The role of previous research in this study ........................................................................................................... 16 4. Theory .................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.1 The concept framing ................................................................................................................................................ 17 4.2 Framing as a theory .................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.3 Is framing theory sufficient? .................................................................................................................................... 20 4.4 Operationalisation ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 5. Material and method ........................................................................................................................... 22 5.1 Text analysis ............................................................................................................................................................... 22 5.2 Qualitative content analysis, with a dash of grounded theory ........................................................................... 22 5.2.1 Elements from grounded theory in this study ................................................................................................ 23 5.3 Coding scheme and content analysis table ............................................................................................................ 24 5.3.1 Content analysis table ......................................................................................................................................... 25 5.4 Data challenges .......................................................................................................................................................... 26 5.5 Choice of material ..................................................................................................................................................... 27 5.6 Reliability and validity ............................................................................................................................................... 28 5.7 Alternative methods ................................................................................................................................................. 29 6. Results and analysis ............................................................................................................................ 30 6.1 How does China frame ethnic minorities in white papers? ................................................................................ 30 6.2 What arguments are used to justify assimilation and sinicisation? .................................................................... 36 6.3 How and why is China assimilating its ethnic minorities now? ......................................................................... 41 7. Concluding discussion and summary ................................................................................................. 45 8. References ........................................................................................................................................... 48 9. Appendixes .......................................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix 1: Coding scheme based on Semetko and Valkenburg’s (2000) five framing functions ................... 54 Appendix 2: Content analysis table .............................................................................................................................. 56 Appendix 3: Material for analysis .................................................................................................................................. 57 Appendix 4: Visual images ............................................................................................................................................. 60 4.1 Vocational and Education Training Centres (Re-education camps) .............................................................. 60 4.2 Demolished or altered religious buildings .......................................................................................................... 62 Abbreviations § AI – Artificial Intelligence § BRI – Belt and Road Initiative § CCP – Chinese Communist Party § CPC – Communist Party of China § ECA – Ethnographic Content Analysis § Han Chauvinism – Han Chinese nationalism § Hui – Muslim Chinese ethnic minority § IJOP – Integrated Joint Operations Platform § Minzu –