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China’s Communist Party
ChinaPolitics

From Xinjiang to Ningxia, China’s ethnic groups face end to affirmative action in education, taxes, policing

  • Preferential policies – seen by Han Chinese as giving ethnic minorities unfair benefits – are changing
  • Police crackdown on those who abuse the law may also be on the way, as campaigns stressing national identity are expanded

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In China, ethnic minority affairs have been at the centre of heated and controversial debates. Photo: Tessa Chan
Mimi Lau

China is set to scale back its affirmative action policies for ethnic minorities, which could result in curbs on education opportunities as well as removal of tax benefits and other subsidies for as many as 110 million people. That’s more than four times the population of Australia.

A police crackdown on ethnic groups that abuse the law could also be coming, along with tougher anti-corruption measures. In tandem, the state will expand campaigns that stress national identity over ethnic roots, a drive that has been spurred by the widely reported conflicts with Muslim communities in the far western Xinjiang region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has thrown his weight behind the move. In a speech in September, he said “national role models” were needed for ethnic unity and progress. “All citizens of all ethnic groups are equal before the law,” he said.

Ethnic minority affairs have been at the centre of heated and controversial debates in China for several years, not least because Han Chinese have increasingly complained about what they see as unfair benefits and subsidies handed out to minorities. The South China Morning Post has learned that Beijing ran studies in the past two years to assess the impact and repercussions of the policy changes. Some provinces have already started to make the shift, especially in education fields.

During a speech in September, President Xi Jinping said “national role models” were needed for ethnic unity and progress. Photo: AFP
During a speech in September, President Xi Jinping said “national role models” were needed for ethnic unity and progress. Photo: AFP

The existing policies amount to “reverse discrimination” on Han Chinese, said Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce. “[The ethnic minorities] receive bonus points in all national exams for entering high school, colleges, civil service and higher level education. From birth to death, they have so many privileges,” he said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform.

Affirmative action in education is perhaps the most controversial of the policies and is also open to wide abuse. Ethnic minority students receive bonus marks when they sit the all-important college entrance exams, and this has led to Han Chinese fraudulently trying to change their ethnicity to take advantage.
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