Unitary State-Heterogeneous Governance: Chinese Nationalities Policy and the Travails of Ethnoreligious Identity in Xinjiang

單一國家中的異質化治理：中國民族政策與新疆族群宗教認同的挑戰

In recent years the Communist Party regime in China has come into increasing friction with ethno-religious minorities along its periphery. The Stalinist method of managing minorities through a regime of ethnic “autonomy” on a segmental basis of territorial exceptionalism has been called into question with the Party moving towards a policy of assimilation resembling traditional policies of hanhua acculturation. The article argues that this friction has been produced by a combination of the pressures of economic development in coupled with Communist Party hostility to religion. This is informed by traditional Han misapprehension of groups whose ethnic identity and religious practices overlap. Cadre policy as well as ethno-cultural discrimination create obstacles for local elites to identify with Chinese state nationalism. When ethnic alienation combines with trans-national influences of Jihadism, the result has been widespread violence in Xinjiang.

近年來，中共政權與邊疆少數民族地區的衝突日益增高。當該黨一步步採用與傳統漢化手段類似的同化政策後，史達林式的少數族群管理政策――即允許在特定部份領土上的族群自治――就受到挑戰。本文認為，當前衝突的根源在於兩個因素的結合，即經濟發展的壓力與共產黨傳統上對宗教的敵視，這點我們可以從傳統上漢族對那些族群認同與宗教信仰重疊的族群抱持的誤解可以看出。幹部政策與族群／宗教所遭受的歧視，阻礙了地方菁英對中國民族主義的認同。在這種族群疏離感與跨國聖戰主義的影響下，新疆的暴力衝突因而不斷發生。