Tianxia and The System of Regional Ethnic Autonomy: The Construction of Nation-State in China

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.