Ethnic Minorities In China

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I live in Xi’an city, which is one of the most ancient cities in China. Xi’an is home to many ethnic minority settlers; for example, there is a thriving Muslim community within the Muslim quarter of the city. Tourists from all over the world visit Muslim street to experience the traditional culture and to eat the abundant and delicious street food. However, some of the minority people do not want to earn money with sweat and hard work, they steal visitor’s wallets and cash. While visitors are angry about this behavior, they are also afraid of the criminals because of the possibility of revenge. This is partly due to the government’s imperfect ethnic minorities policy which provides unique protection for some people. The policy’s ultimate goal …show more content…

China is facing a significant race relations problem. The BBC news reporter Monk (2012) claimed that due to China’s erroneous implementation of its ethnic policy, ethnic minorities have no sense of belonging and, to a certain extent, this has undermined social fairness and national unity. At the same time, the majority groups are not willing to accept the ethnic minority groups. The original intention of the policy was to create a unified multi-ethnic country promoting harmony, friendship, mutual assistance and respect. However, Chinese citizens no longer consider this strategy as suitable for their current situation and development. Therefore, China needs to adjust its policies towards ethnic minorities because of the issues of unreasonable Gaokao bonus points, imperfect regional autonomy, and the unfair justice system. The most controversial issue affecting …show more content…

Some people feel that regional autonomy is a great way to unite people of all ethnic groups into the same big family. The ethnic minority groups have decision-making power in the region which can safeguard their political, cultural and religious rights (Xu Rouyu, 2013). However, because of this power and indulgence, there have been vicious incidents such as acts of self-immolation by Tibetans and the mass fight which occurred in Xinjiang after a Hunan villager and ethnic Uygurs clashed over the extremely high price they were charging for nut cake. The Public Security Bureau in the city of Yueyang, Hunan province reported the dispute between the villager and the Uygur vendors on their official Weibo (like Twitter in the US) account. The incident quickly became one of the most popular topics on Weibo. The vendors received compensation of $30,000 for the ruined nut cakes, and $5,500 for hospital costs for the

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