There are two main processes underlying the formation of a nation-state. First is the process of state-building, which has been related to the territorialization of state hegemony. Second is the process of nation-building, which is linked with the creation of a citizenry. In October 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came into power, the influence of the CCP in frontier areas occupied by minority nationalities was quite limited. Such areas formed a kind of buffer zone, where the interests of local ethnic minorities, the former Guomindang government, and various foreign powers all lay in competition. Following the establishment of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in 1947 the CCP produced a state-building plan known as the Regional Autonomy System for Minority Nationalities (RAS), with the purpose of integrating frontier areas into the territory under the direct power of the CCP. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the development of the Autonomy Policy of the CCP, paying special attention to the formation of Chinese state building in the 1950s.
In the second section of this study the development and present state of Nationality Autonomous Areas (NAA) is examined from a historical perspective. During the period 1947-1958 four autonomous regions, twenty-eight autonomous prefectures, and fifty-three autonomous counties were established. In the 1960s and 1970s, when the ethnic policy of the CCP had been largely rejected under the influence of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, only the Tibet autonomous region and ten autonomous counties were established. Afterwards, the number of autonomous counties increased rapidly following enforcement of the Law on Regional Autonomy for Minority Nationalities in 1984. Evidence is brought to light, however, to suggest that several NAAs said to have been established after 1959 were set up in the 1950s. In fact, the structure of the present administrative organization in almost all Chinese minority areas, with the only exceptions of the Tuija and the Man nationalities, were formulated in the 1950s. This is considered to be the decisive period in which the CCP government created a nation-state.
The third section of this paper explains how, in the first half of the 1950s, Nationality Autonomous Regions (NAR) and Nationality Democratic United Governments (NDUG) were set up as predecessors of NAAs. The CCP dispatched missions to three regions with minority groups which, in the South-West and the Middle-South, resulted in the establishment of a large number of NAR and NDUGs. In the South-West region in particular, eighty-five NARs and 163 NDUGs had been set up by the end of 1951 (with a view to their importance for national defence), although formal enactment was not carried out until August, 1952.
Administrative reorganization of these districts in the second half of the 1950s is discussed in section four of this paper. The Chinese Constitution of 1954 provided for a new administrative order, with NAR and NDUGs to be replaced by NAAs comprising autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous counties. Three policies for reorganization, announced officially at the end of 1954, clarified the complementarity of these districts with one another and introduced certain reforms. RAS policies after 1958 are also discussed briefly in this section.
The final section investigates whether or not RAS policies have been applied equally to all the main nationality minorities, using data from the 1990 Census of Minority Nationalities. The political and administrative conditions of minority nationalities are classified into six categories according to the number of autonomous areas for each minority nationality and the percentage share of total population occupied by these groups. The results indicate that minority nationalities are not always treated equally by the CCP.
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