Mass Incidents of Ethnic Minorities in China: A Political Sociology Perspective.

Social protests by ethnic minorities are frequent and increasing in China, and thus it is imperative to better understand the reasons behind them, which is especially important for the central government's attempts to help ethnic minorities and ethnic areas with their economic and social development. I take the protests by minority ethnic in China as the subject to explore the role of state-society relationship in social movements and how the government should formulate its policy about such protects. Two variables are examined: one is minorities' perception of frustration in market competition, and the other is the capacity alteration of minorities' political and social participation in the process of state-building. The interaction between the willingness and capabilities of the ethnic minorities affects the degree and intensity of social protests. Social protests by ethnic minorities are mainly provoked by the dislocation associated with the marketization and state-building. It seems that an effective course of action by the government is to focus on keeping ethnic tensions below a certain acceptable threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]