Multination under Communismby

Jie Li

PhD Candidate

School of History

University of Edinburgh

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Table of Content

1. Research Background

2. Methodology, Sources, and Order

3. Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev

4. Soviet Implication on China’s Nationalities

5. Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal Foreigners

6. Bibliography 2

1 Research Background

• A chapter from my PhD thesis: “Sovietology in Post-Mao China”.

• Case study approach: the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies (IREECAS) affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing (http://euroasia.cass.cn ).

• Inspired by David Engerman’s book of “Know Your Enemy: the Rise and Fall of America’s Soviet Experts” (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009).

• Comparison of ethnic conditions and policies between China and the former Soviet Union.

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2 Methodology, Sources, and Order

• Bimonthly official IREECAS journal of “Matters of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe” (Sulian dongou wenti), which has been renamed as “Study of Russia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe” (Eluosi zhongya dongou yanjiu) since 1992 (http://euroasia.cass.cn/news/110450.htm ).

• Thematic Studies from Lenin to Gorbachev.

• Analysis on current China’s ethnic situation.

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2 Methodology, Sources, and Order (con..)

• Implication of the Soviet disunion on China.

• Interplay of Chinese scholarship and Chinese ethnic politics.

• What China has learned from the Soviet experiences.

• The new phenomenon in China.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev

Vladimir Lenin and Self-determination:

• Chinese opinions are divided on Lenin’s nationality policies, but as a whole quite positive.

• Some of them insist that self-determination was a genuine intention for national salvation.

• Others think it was a strategy for a strong union.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Joseph Stalin’s Oppressiveness:

• Departure from Lenin’s original, and had nothing to do with genuine socialism and internationalism based on Marxist principle.

• Although Chinese scholarship from IREECAS admit Stalin’s barbarous conduct, but they are shy of using the terms of “genocide” or “massacre” to describe Stalin’s crimes.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

After Stalin:

• De-Stalinization did not have sufficient positive impact on Soviet nationality policy.

• The concept of “Soviet people” was equivalent to a renewed form of Russification.

• National problems were even worse after Stalin.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Liberalization:

• Pessimistic views on Gorbachev’s liberal and unrestrained national policies in the 1980s.

• Gorbachev might be the cause for massive ethnic disturbances which battered the Soviet state in 1991.

• Gorbachev neglected the economic matter, which was the key for national unity.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Liberalization (con..):

• Some of the nationality borders were arbitrarily and unscientifically demarcated, often without proper ethnic and historical considerations. The dilemma made the socialist state susceptible to ethnic conflicts and national split, and even plagued the post-Soviet nations after 1991, like the current Crimea in the Ukraine.

• Gorbachev’s new thinking and his reforms were not immune to western influence and peaceful evolution.

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• Will China lose the grip on its minorities and become another Soviet in future?

• Absolute national majority of Han; continuing Han Chinese migration; “ethnic drowning”—a term coined by Timothy Cheek (from Living with Reform: China since 1989, Black Point: Fernwood, 2006).

• After 1991 Chinese immediately reduced the numbers of minority party elites in both provincial and state levels (Minglang Zhou, “The Fate of the Soviet Model of Multinational State-Building in the People's Republic of China,” in China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-Present, eds. Thomas Bernstein and Hua-yu Li. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010).

4 Soviet Implication on China’s Nationalities

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4 Soviet Implication on China’s Nationalities (con..)• The methods of forced emigration and isolation (Graham Fuller and

Jonathan Lipman, “Islam in Xinjiang,” in Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland, ed. S. Frederick Starr. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2004).

• The strategy of “divide and rule” (Gardner Bovingdon, “Heteronomy and Its Discontents: ‘Minzu Regional Autonomy’ in Xinjiang,” in Governing China’s Multiethnic Frontiers, ed. Morris Rossabi. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004).

• Close the door of minorities to the outside world.

• The policy of obscurantism.

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5 Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal Foreigners

• China may face another nationality adversity which is different with that of the Soviet empire in the new millennium—the rise of “internal foreigners” (Dru Gladney, Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities, and other Subaltern Subjects. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).

• Han Chinese is actually a group of very diverse peoples with different cultures and languages.

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5 Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal Foreigners (con..)

• Cantonese peoples versus Mandarin speakers (for political, cultural, and linguistic reasons).

• Others, such as Shanghainess and Hokkiens (Fujianess), versus Beijing (for political and economic reasons).

• China must deal with this problem alone in the future.

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Bibliography

Primary SourcesIREECAS Official Bi-Monthly Journal:

Suliandongou wenti [Matters of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe], later (after 1991) known as Eluosi zhongya dongou yanjiu [Study of Russia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe]

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Bibliography

Secondary SourcesChinese Nationalities:

Bernstein, Thomas, and Hua-yu Li, eds. China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-Present. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010.

Cheek, Timothy. Living with Reform: China since 1989. Black Point, N.S.: Fernwood, 2006.

Dreyer, June. China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic of China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976.

He, Baogang, and Yingjie Guo. Nationalism, National Identity and Democratization in China. Aldershot; Brookfield USA: Ashgate, 2000.

Rossabi, Morris, ed. Governing China's Multiethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Starr, S. Frederick, ed. Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2004.

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Bibliography

Secondary SourcesSoviet Nationalities:

Fowkes, Ben. The Disintegration of the Soviet Union: A Study in the Rise and Triumph of Nationalism. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich. Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World. London: Fontana, 1988.

Naimark, Norman. Stalin’s Genocides. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Rezun, Miron. Nationalism and the Breakup of An Empire: Russia and Its Periphery. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992.

Laqueur, Walter. The Dream that Failed: Reflections on the Soviet Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

White, Stephen, Alex Pravda, and Zvi Gitelman, eds. Developments in Russian & Post-Soviet Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.

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Thank You!

Your Comments are Highly Welcome!

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