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Although ethnic governance in the People's Republic of China is often portrayed as a matter of controlling "minority nationalities" in the country's frontier regions, the ethnic affairs bureaucracy operates in every province. The origins of "nationalities work" as a discrete domain of governance can be traced to the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to mobilize scattered Hui communities in the eastern provinces of Shandong and Hebei in the 1930s–1940s. Thanks to the initiative of Hui Communists, local Party leaders came to understand that Hui were not simply scattered but interconnected. They adapted and replicated organizational methods to exploit Hui networks for gathering intelligence, smuggling goods and penetrating enemy-controlled cities. This history offers an instructive case of adaptive governance in the revolutionary period and the role of ethnic minority cadres in policy entrepreneurship. It also underscores the importance of the Party's experience in eastern China in the study of Chinese ethnic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses two books that focus on the Chinese government's treatment of Muslim ethnic minorities in western China, particularly the Uyghurs. The first book, "In the Camps: Life in China's High-Tech Penal Colony," is written by Darren Byler, an American anthropologist who conducted research in the targeted region. The second book, "How I Survived a Chinese 'Re-education' Camp," is written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman who managed to escape from China and tells her personal story. Both books shed light on the massive scale of the internment camps and the dehumanizing treatment of the detainees. The article also discusses the development of a high-tech surveillance system and the larger context of China's political shift towards nationalism and Han Chinese supremacism. [Extracted from the article]

In recent years, a global tilt toward rightist majoritarianism has made Muslim and Christian minorities of Asia more vulnerable to violence and displacement. China's program of "de-extremification" among the Uyghurs, Myanmar's military operations against the Rohingya, and Hindutva-inspired violence in India illustrate strong-handed homogenizing impulses, even by governments that profess to embrace diversity. By examining these different contexts through a common lens, it becomes possible to recognize recurring patterns and think beyond the nation-state as the only framework for addressing minority vulnerability. After comparing Muslim and Christian vulnerability across a variety of Asian contexts, the essay explores the possibility of "Islamo-Christian" solidarity in the face of majoritarian violence. This new alignment defies a longstanding imperialist framework, whose geopolitics pits a Christian West against a Muslim other. It also embraces an ethic of empathy that transcends the language of "religious freedom" – a principle arising from the same geopolitics that manufactured majority-minority distinctions to begin with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Communist Party has unleashed a campaign of repression against Turkic minorities residing in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This campaign does not stop at China's borders. This study introduces the Transnational Repression of Uyghurs Dataset, which contains 7108 cases of Uyghurs being targeted in 44 states from 1997 to 2021, the largest public dataset on transnational repression published to date. Unlike other regimes, the Chinese state has been indiscriminate in its persecution, often pursuing apolitical diaspora members on account of their ethnicity rather than political activism. China's transnational repression of Uyghurs has expanded rapidly in recent years as domestic repression has increased in XUAR. We documented 238 incidents from 1997 to 2014, and an additional 6870 events since 2014. The paper argues that globalization is producing a new trend of transnational minority persecution, offering new insights for our understanding of twenty-first century genocides and minority persecution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1949, ethnic minority nationalism in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has consistently concerned the People's Republic of China. Most previous studies on nationalism in XUAR focused on organised visible nationalist movements and ignored everyday life, particularly regarding interactions between the government and citizens or between the majority and the minority. This study investigates daily practices of ethnic minority nationalism in XUAR within the framework of everyday nationalism. It explores daily life in Altay City to determine how members of ethnic minority groups produce and maintain their sense of ethnic identity in this context. The article found that members of ethnic minority groups are engaged in a struggle to retain their sense of ethnic identity by resisting state nationalism and expressing antagonism towards Han Chinese in their everyday lives. This study reveals a covert nationalist movement involving almost everyone in XUAR. Ethnic nationalism is central to XUAR society and will continue to shape its social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a global tilt toward rightist majoritarianism has made Muslim and Christian minorities of Asia more vulnerable to violence and displacement. China's program of "de-extremification" among the Uyghurs, Myanmar's military operations against the Rohingya, and Hindutva-inspired violence in India illustrate strong-handed homogenizing impulses, even by governments that profess to embrace diversity. By examining these different contexts through a common lens, it becomes possible to recognize recurring patterns and think beyond the nation-state as the only framework for addressing minority vulnerability. After comparing Muslim and Christian vulnerability across a variety of Asian contexts, the essay explores the possibility of "Islamo-Christian" solidarity in the face of majoritarian violence. This new alignment defies a longstanding imperialist framework, whose geopolitics pits a Christian West against a Muslim other. It also embraces an ethic of empathy that transcends the language of "religious freedom" – a principle arising from the same geopolitics that manufactured majority-minority distinctions to begin with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the biopower of non-Han bodies by considering the intersections of anthropology, racial science, and colonial regimes. During the 1930s and 1940s, when extensive anthropometric research was being undertaken on non-Han populations in the south-western borderlands of China, several anthropologists studied non-Han groups under the aegis of frontier administration. Chinese scholars sought to generate the physical characteristics of ethnic minority groups in the south-west of China through the methodology of body measurement, in order to identify forms of social and political intervention in the management of the non-Han population in wartime. This article examines the global transmission of Western social science in China, highlighting the local reception of Western racial taxonomy. Non-Han bodies were represented as a subcategory of the Mongolian/'Yellow' race through anthropometric research. The body measurements of non-Han people were used to demonstrate physical similarities between the Han and various ethnic minority groups in order to evoke a unified Zhonghua minzu (Chinese ethnicity) that embraced both the Han Chinese and frontier ethnic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the ways in which the painter Pang Xunqin "translated" the bodies of non-Han people, by examining his visual representation of the Miao people of Guizhou during the 1940s. His work needs to be understood within the context of the history of anthropology in Republican China. Since he worked closely with Chinese anthropologists his work was largely informed by an anthropological understanding of human diversity and of ethnographic collecting and museum practice, a matter hardly explored among current studies on Pang Xunqin. Pang's representation of the Miao was influenced in equal measure by customary Chinese ethnographic illustration and Western anthropological photography. This paper highlights the many sources that can be found in Pang's works and reveals how he depicted the peripheral frontier. The biopolitics of the body, employed as a system of ethnic classification by Chinese anthropologists, affected Pang's visualization of Miao bodies. In order to build a politicized and unifying Zhonghua minzu, Chinese anthropologists, demonstrated bodily similarities between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities in the southwest of China under categories of "Mongoloid" or "Yellow" racial types. Pang thus depicted Miao bodies by emphasizing their bodily similarities with the majority Han Chinese and adopting the physical features of "Mongoloid/Yellow." His work provides a fine example of the ways in which art can become politicized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the retraction of papers from a genetics journal due to concerns about informed consent for study participants, particularly from ethnic minorities in China.

Chinese academics and politicians argue that Xinjiang's 'terrorism' problem can only be solved by 'optimizing' its ethnic population structure. High ethnic minority population concentrations are considered a national security threat. 'Optimizing' such concentrations requires 'embedding' substantial Han populations, whose 'positive culture' can mitigate the Uyghur 'human problem'. Scenarios that do not overburden the region's ecological carrying capacity entail drastic reductions in ethnic minority natural population growth, potentially decreasing their populations. Population 'optimization' discourses and related policies provide a basis to assess Beijing's 'intent' to destroy an ethnic minority population in part through birth prevention per the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. The 'destruction in part' can be assessed as the difference between projected natural population growth without substantial government interference and reduced growth scenarios in line with population 'optimization' requirements. Based on population projections by Chinese researchers, this difference could range between 2.6 and 4.5 million lives by 2040. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a paradigm shift in the PRC that has occurred over the past two decades which has transformed the meaning of "minority nationality" (shaoshu minzu). Today, the very concept of minority nationalities is perceived by Beijing as entailing a threat to the Chinese state and the Chinese nation. The shift underlies a change of China's institutional form from a "multinational state" to a "unified community of the Chinese nation." The result is the current heavy-handed approach toward China's minority peoples, especially in borderlands such as Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. The article suggests that these minority nationalities are now understood by the Chinese leadership to constitute veritable Frankenstein's monsters that were created by the Party's minority-nationality classification system and have now grown strong enough to attack their creator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Twice-minority' immigrants, immigrants who are ethnic minorities in both their home country and country of destination, may face ambiguity and multiple options in their ethnic self-identification in the host society. This paper investigates the dynamics in the identity construction among such groups. My data comes from in-depth interviews with 40 recent immigrants in the United States from two minority ethnic groups in China: Korean-Chinese and Uyghur. I find that these two groups' perceived phenotypical and cultural difference from (or similarity to) the majority Han ethnic group in China, experiences of prejudice in China, and pre-existing transnational ethnic ties influence the identity dynamics in their interactions with different groups in the U.S. Both Korean-Chinese and Uyghur immigrants experience a mix of pulling and pushing forces towards identities associated with different proximal host groups in these interactions, but Uyghur immigrants' identity options are constrained by their phenotypical distinctness from the Han Chinese. Both groups maintain their distinct ethnic identity in the host society, but they find different new bases for their twice-minority identity. The article shows how everyday interactions with multiple ethnic audiences shape possibilities of identity and ethnicisation and helps us better understand ethnic identity and transnational movement of ethnic schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of nation building often entails the articulation of communal heroes. This paper argues that the elevation of such heroes is particularly significant for minority nations divided between multiple states. The project of building the Uyghur nation, carried out across the borders of three twentieth-century socialist states, offers a unique opportunity for examining this phenomenon. In particular, the Uyghur case offers insight into the many minority communities whose nation building process was linked to twentieth-century socialism. This paper traces the posthumous reputation of Sadir Palwan, a nineteenth-century resistance fighter against the Qing empire who in the twentieth century was reinterpreted as a Uyghur national hero. Drawing on poetry, fiction, journal articles, and textbooks, the paper demonstrates that the project of articulating a heroic canon allowed Uyghur intellectuals to work across state borders as they shaped an identity for their nation outside the nation-state framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is aimed to examine the effect of Uyghur's (minority group) positive and negative extended contact with Han (majority group) within the background of China. One affective (intergroup anxiety) and two cognitive (perceived in‐group and out‐group norms) variables were tested as potential mediators. A sample of 875 Uyghur minority college students ranging in age from 17 to 25 years completed self‐reported measures of direct contact, positive and negative extended contact, intergroup anxiety, perceptions of in‐group and out‐group norms, out‐group attitudes, and contact intentions. Results revealed that both positive and negative extended contact were associated with out‐group attitudes and contact intentions, over and above the effect of direct contact. The effects of both forms of extended contact were mediated by intergroup anxiety, perceived in‐group, and out‐group norms. Notably, positive extended contact exerted larger effects than negative extended contact. This research highlights the significance of considering both positive and negative extended contact and the potential of extended contact as a means to ameliorate intergroup relations from the perspective of minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some ethnic groups are remarkably resistant to surrounding influences, and only slightly undergo assimilation. What, then, are the most significant factors affecting ethnic assimilation? The foremost is state intervention. The state can support the nationalist tendencies of one group of inhabitants while suppressing the ethnic expressions of non-dominant groups. How do various ethnic groups respond to this kind of support or oppression? In this research note the Baloch minority, a relatively small group in Turkmenistan, have been chosen as a case study to examine the questions raised above. The chosen ethnic group under investigation here does not have a homeland to provide it with support. There are numerous such ethnic groups in non-dominant positions without states that cause tension between minorities and majorities. The tension is often extremely strong, even when such groups have political autonomy (e.g., the Kurds in Iraq and the Uyghurs in China). The aim of this report from the field is to explain how self-aware the Baloch of Turkmenistan are of their identity and the extent to which they have succumbed to modernization and attempts to render them Turkmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks if economic growth and steps towards a market economy have affected earnings gaps between the Han and nine large urban ethnic minorities: Zhuang, Hui, Manchurian, Tujia, Uighur, Miao, Tibetan, Mongol and Korean. It also asks how earnings premiums and earnings penalties have changed for the nine ethnic minorities. For the analysis we use a subsample of the 2005 China's Inter-Census Survey. We find examples of three different changes over time in earnings premiums and earnings penalties: One ethnic minority for whom the development has been more favourable than for the Han majority; a second category in which development has been similar; and a third category for which development has been unfavourable. We conclude from the analysis that it can be misleading to infer the experience of one ethnic minority from that of another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sino-Muslim relations rest upon an informal socio-spatial hierarchy according to which some Muslim groups are more of an asset and others more of a liability. In this informal hierarchy, Hui Muslims are closer to the center than any other Muslim group because they are Sinicized, seen as religiously moderate, and mostly live in proximity to non-Muslim Chinese neighbors. Central Asian Muslims, most notably Xinjiang’s Uyghurs, are more distant from China’s notional center and seen as culturally more alien and prone to religious extremism. This article discusses the historical roots of this socio-spatial hierarchy and systematically examines Sino-Muslim relations in political, economic, and societal terms. It concludes that, despite problematic features from a western-liberal perspective, the hierarchy continues to enable the Chinese majority to manage a set of otherwise challenging relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are showing an increasing trend globally as well as in China. Elderly population are more prone to these NCDs. Situation in China is worse owing to the higher proportion of geriatric population. Burden of NCDs and the role of their socio-demographic and behavioral predictors among these elderly and more so among the ethnic minority groups among them, need to be investigated specifically, owing to their distinct genetic background, lifestyles and behavior. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1329 randomly selected persons of Uyghur ethnicity, aged 60 years or more in Xinjiang, the largest administrative division in China to measure the burden of NCDs, understand the distribution of socio-demographic, behavioral and life event-related potential correlates of them and to estimate the association of the NCDs with these correlates. Results: Among these participants 54.2% were female, 86.8% were married and more than half had only attended elementary school or less. 41.46% was suffering from at least one NCD. 20.22% had one NCD, 12.11% had two and 8.58% had three or more. 27.3% had hypertension, 4.06% had diabetes, 6.02% had hyperlipidemia, 7.37% had angina, 14.52% had cardiovascular diseases, 11.59% had any kind of cancers and 9.78% had chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Rural residents (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.17–1.80, AOR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.53–2.61) and current smokers had higher odds of having more NCDs (AOR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.00–2.34). Additionally not being satisfied with current life, not being able to take care of self in daily life, currently not being involved in farm work, less intake of fresh vegetables, fruits and garlic, too less or too much salt intake, not having hobbies were found to be positively associated with having more NCDs. Conclusion: Implementation of effective intervention strategies to promote healthy life styles among the Uyghur elderly population of China seems urgent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on protests raised by the ethnic minority Uyghurs against the Chinese government. Topics covered include the description of the minority, association of the minority members with terrorists involved in the missing Malaysia Airlines flight and accusations raised against the minorities. Also mentioned is the media's depiction and coverage of the activities and plans of the minority group as well as the threat posed by radical Islamist organizations against the Chinese government.

This study investigates the relation between minorities and the state in the context of China and its “war on terror”. The study shows that in some instances states like China utilize diversionary strategies, such as “war on terror”, in order to deflect public attention from recurring domestic troubles, to solve the problem of legitimacy and to rally their citizens around the flag of their regime. These diversionary strategies aim to scapegoat a particular group (in most cases an ethnic or religious minority) for current problems of the country and by “othering” this group, the state tries to achieve an in-group/out-group effect and to unify the people. In fact, by creating a “suspect community”, the Chinese state has aimed to consolidate its own “imagined community”. In this study the case of the Uyghur minority in China and the state's policies toward this ethnic group will be used to demonstrate that the Uyghur minority was selected as the domestic other following September 11, 2001, in order to demonize Uyghur dissent groups in diaspora as well as to unify the Chinese people by using the perception of terrorist threat. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Deryabuyi, a small isolated town in the Takla Makan desert in Xinjiang, China, is viewed from the perspective of its rural economy. The minority Uyghur inhabitants are similar to other rural minority communities in China. In particular, focus is placed on the digging of rabbit carrots, a medicinal herb that grows on the roots of mesquite trees. Just as the Tibetan caterpillar-fungus collection has brought cash, and problems, to rural Tibetans, the collection of rabbit carrots has brought cash to Deryabuyi. However, the loss of the ability to engage in sustainable economic activities due to environmental degradation, loss of grazing land, overharvesting of scarce resources, diversion of water resources, government neglect along with scarce and/or inadequate social services such as health care and education, and job discrimination among others, may mean the destruction of this unique cultural community. As such, Deryabuyi can be seen as a microcosm of the challenges facing rural minorities in Xinjiang and in other parts of China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Previous studies indicate that the frequency distributions of HLA alleles and haplotypes vary from one ethnic group to another or between the members of the same ethnic group living in different geographic areas. It is necessary and meaningful to study the high-resolution allelic and haplotypic distributions of HLA loci in different groups. Methodology/Principal Findings: High-resolution HLA typing for the Uyghur ethnic minority group using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based-typing method was first reported. HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 allelic distributions were determined in 104 unrelated healthy Uyghur individuals and haplotypic frequencies and linkage disequilibrium parameters for HLA loci were estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. A total of 35 HLA-A, 51 HLA-B and 33 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified at the four-digit level in the population. High frequency alleles were HLA-A*1101 (13.46%), A*0201 (12.50%), A*0301 (10.10%); HLA-B*5101(8.17%), B*3501(6.73%), B*5001 (6.25%); HLA-DRB1*0701 (16.35%), DRB1*1501 (8.65%) and DRB1*0301 (7.69%). The two-locus haplotypes at the highest frequency were HLA-A*3001-B*1302 (2.88%), A*2402-B*5101 (2.86%); HLA-B*5001-DRB1*0701 (4.14%) and B*0702-DRB1*1501 (3.37%). The three-locus haplotype at the highest frequency was HLA-A*3001-B*1302-DRB1*0701(2.40%). Significantly high linkage disequilibrium was observed in six twolocus haplotypes, with their corresponding relative linkage disequilibrium parameters equal to 1. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree between the Uyghur group and other previously reported populations was constructed on the basis of standard genetic distances among the populations calculated using the four-digit sequence-level allelic frequencies at HLAA, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 loci. The phylogenetic analyses reveal that the Uyghur group belongs to the northwestern Chinese populations and is most closely related to the Xibe group, and then to Kirgiz, Hui, Mongolian and Northern Han. Conclusions/Significance: The present findings could be useful to elucidate the genetic background of the population and to provide valuable data for HLA matching in clinical bone marrow transplantation, HLA-linked disease-association studies, population genetics, human identification and paternity tests in forensic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that over the past ten years, Uighurs in Xinjiang province have expressed their dissatisfaction with Chinese rule through bombings, riots and attacks on government facilities. The Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic minority concentrated in northwestern China, along the border with Kazakhstan. The Uighur resistance falls into two categories — episodic unrest and insurgent activity. It is Uighur insurgent activities that many Western observers have in mind when discussing China's tribulations in Xinjiang.