China’s catch-22

By now, the situation in China’s Xinjiang region seems to be cooling down.

After Hu Jintao’s hasty (and no doubt embarrassing) departure from the G-8 summit in Italy, troops surged into Xinjiang to further stem the violence.  

But even after order is restored, it’s hard to imagine the tension will go away. This clash, between the Han and Uyghur ethnic groups, wasn’t just a random flare of violence, but a partial release of tension that has been building for some time.

Ethnic minorities in China seem to have a peculiar existence. It can’t be easy being in a country where there are 55 recognized ethnic groups, of which more than 90 percent are the Han ethnic majority.  In particular, because Chinese culture draws such a sharp distinction between outsiders and insiders, it can feel cold on the outside.

I had a professor who once said that the best way to identify Chinese civilization is look for the walls – the Great Wall is a perfect example, differentiating “them” from “us.”

If you ask anyone in China how ethnic minorities fare, you are invariably reminded of China’s own affirmative action policies, which give exemption to China’s one-child policy to all non-Han ethnic groups, as well as extra points on the “gao kao,” the college entrance examination. Ethnic minorities, most Chinese will tell you, live a rather blessed life.

But sometimes the focus on what ethnic minorities are awarded in compensation seems to gloss over the problems they still face. When they complain, they are seen as ungrateful. There’s a word in Chinese, “jianwai,” that aptly describes the situation – when someone is too polite to you, is too obliging, and it creates social distance. It literally means “to see as foreign.”

It was a perfect description for the beginning of my time in China in which, because I was different, I was treated with an unfailing politeness. But, as comfortable as it is, that politeness shown to foreigners also creates an unbridgeable gap and ensures that those who were once different will always be different.

Perhaps in recognition of this fact, the Chinese government has embarked on several policies meant to integrate marginalized groups. The encouragement of mass migration of the ethnic majority Han group to minority regions, for example, or a stronger emphasis on mainstream Chinese education and less focus on native culture. Critics, however, allege these only serve to dilute already threatened identities.

It’s a classic case of how the Chinese government can’t seem to win in the public eye. Give minorities special privileges and you make them different; encourage integration and you’re destroying their identity. And while there’s a firestorm of criticism no matter what the Chinese government does, the real issue at hand is a lack of understanding at just how tricky ethnic integration can be.

People who like to allege that China is being ham-fisted in the way it treats minorities seem to miss that in situations like this, there isn’t any easy solution. Sometimes it just takes time.