The PRC is a multi-ethnic country comprising the Han majority group and 55
other ethnic minorities. Since many of the minorities are populated in strategically
important peripheral areas, how to integrate these ethnic groups and frontier regions
into China Proper has been a critical issue in China’s state-building process.
Despite the serious efforts made by the CCP in its state-building project, the
1990s has seen a growing ethno-nationalism countrywide. One of the most extreme
cases is the Uyghur’s East Turkestan movement, which, after remaining silent in the
whole decade of the 1970s, resurfaced from 1980, and became active since the 1990s.
What accounts for this surge of ethno-nationalism, especially Uyghur activism?
Viewing the state as a part of society, this paper attempts to explore the
dynamics between state-building and ethno-nationalism in China. It argues that statebuilding,
which intends to assure and expand its power, provides opportunity for
ethno-nationalism to grow, and even more, for ethnic political movements to occur.
By tracing the processes and dynamics as to how the shift in the state policy affects
the cognitive framework of the minority people, provides sustainable resource to the
movement, and offers space for social movement organizations to surface, this paper
will then illustrate how state-building produces some unintended results.