Tianxia and The System of Regional Ethnic Autonomy: The Construction of Nation-State in China.
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Title:
Tianxia and The System of Regional Ethnic Autonomy: The Construction of
Nation-State in China
Main Idea: As already revealed in the title, the aim of this paper is to discuss the differences and connections between the three concepts of ethnic, nation and state in the Chinese context. The main thesis of this paper is that the construction of the nation-state in modern China relies on a division between the enemy and the self that serves an objective of struggle, which shapes the image of the ‘Chinese nation’ (China as a nation) and manifests itself as a grand unified polity (China as a state), while the ethnic groups are unified under the Chinese nation, whose role is to maintain the unified polity (rather than to divide it). The purpose of this paper is to refute those who attribute the foundations of the system of regional ethnic autonomy to the Tianxia system; instead, it will argue that the construction of the nation-state in modern China is a stressful crystallization of the Tianxia system when it encounters the Other, where the Hua/Yi distinction contained in the Tianxia system is invalidated.
1. Introduction: Ethnic, Nation and State
a) In China, the relationship between the three concepts of ethnic group, nation and state is ambiguous: on the one hand, China claims to be a unified nation, the Chinese nation, while on the other hand, there are 56 ethnic groups, including Han and other ethnic minorities, on Chinese land.
b) China as a state, on the one hand, claims to be founded on the Chinese nation (the nation-state), while on the other hand its dominance over some ethnic minorities is not secure and even faces a great crisis of legitimacy.
c) Some scholars have attempted to explain these phenomena in terms of the Tianxia system, but it is the goal of this paper to critique this explanatory strategy and to argue that the Tianxia system has been greatly weakened in the process of nation-state construction in modern China and replaced by a struggle-centred construction. And as a result, the system of regional ethnic autonomy was born.
2. Tianxia and The System of Regional Ethnic Autonomy
2.1 The Tianxia System
a) The
Tianxia system is a dynamic system which includes both Hua and Yi, the former implying civilizational orthodoxy and the latter being designated by orthodoxy as alien. The system is said to be dynamic because the identity roles of Hua and Yi change in certain situations, and this is because the content of civilization and the group’s reception of that content is dynamic. In addition, Hua and Yi will undergo a reversal of identity due to a change in power.
b) It has been argued that the Tianxia system not only existed in ancient China, but also laid the foundation for the multi-ethnic unification narrative and the construction of a grand unified nation-state polity in modern China.
c) However, there are some clear differences that can be observed: the unstable Hua/Yi relationship is inconsistent with fixed national identification; and while in ancient China Tianxia was conceived as an imaginary of the cosmos, modern China – as a nation-state – has placed itself within the world system.
2.2 The Crystallization of The Tianxia System
a) At the heart of the Tianxia system lies the identification of orthodoxy through a system of culture and symbols, and it is on the basis of symbolic instability that the whole world is constructed as a whole, and all forces, whether Hua or Yi, can be positioned within this order.
b) This imaginary of the world was shattered when ancient China began to be invaded by other, more powerful nations, and the process that followed was the consolidation of forces within Tianxia, and it was at this point that the process of constructing the Chinese nation took place, in which Hua and Yi were seen as equal groups that formed an alliance against a foreign enemy (the National United Front against Japan, for example, was self-organized against this enemy).
c) This crystallized Tianxia system needed a clear boundary to identify itself so that it could have equal international status with other states, and this was the birth of China as a state. In this sense, China becomes a nation-state.
2.3 The System of Regional Ethnic Autonomy
a) The birth and consolidation of the Chinese nation was accompanied by struggles, such as the anti-colonial struggle and the class struggle. The identification of ethnic groups was also an operation carried out by the government to consolidate the unified status of the Chinese nation after the founding of New China.
b) Of course, some remnants of the Tianxia system can be seen in this system, such as the dominance of the Han over the other minorities.
c) However, the purpose of identifying the ethnic minorities is, on the one hand, to affirm their status institutionally so that these marginalized groups can be easily managed and ruled, and on the other hand, to accept them culturally as part of the Chinese nation. These are both intended to create a unified nation-state, not to reproduce that dichotomous Tianxia system. (The GCSE system and some official promotional texts can be used as evidence)
3. Conclusion: The Construction of Nation-State in China
a) “The Tianxia system, in which ‘nothing under heaven is kingdom’, was broken down and China urgently needed to position itself within the nation-state-dominated world system, and then crystallize itself culturally and politically into a unified whole.
b) For this reason, many marginalized groups had to be included in order to maintain the historical continuity of the Chinese nation and the stability of central government rule, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy was born, replacing the Soviet-style system of ethnic self-determination.
c) It was not that infinite system of Tianxia that made China a nation-state, but the process of struggle that transformed Tianxia from infinite to finite.
