The Features and Experience of China's National Policy in the Context of Its Political System's Characteristics

The article considers features of the state structure of the People's Republic of China. Special attention is paid to the state national policy of the People's Republic of China that is pursued in the Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions because they are the most problematic in an ethno-political sense. The authors state that administrative, political, economic, social, and cultural factors are key markers determining the development of autonomous territories. The state national policy is formed and promoted based on these factors and taking into account the specifics of each autonomy. In analyzing the PRC's state national policy, the authors proposed its core topics and features. First, the PRC can be identified as a state-directed type that forms and governs social and political processes, including ethnic, based on long-term planning in all territories. Second, the Chinese model of national policy is implemented through a centralized ethno-political system with a large proportion of ethnic minorities (8.5%) in the population of the country; in the PRC, the Han Chinese are an ethnic majority with the "core" function. Third, the PRC's national policy is specific as the state is ideological: the Communist Party of China implements the priorities of official ideology (including the ethno-political sphere). Fourth, there are signs of an assimilation policy in the PRC, but it is being implemented in a "soft" way, including through the sociopolitical course proposed by Xi Jinping, the Chairman of the PRC, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee; it is the so-called conception of the "Chinese dream". The conception proposes to unite all 56 nationalities and the Han Chinese in order to revive the Chinese nation. Thus, the authors of the article come to the conclusion that the People's Republic of China is state-directed; it is based on the principles of "democratic centralism" which seeks to run all the processes, including the ethno-political sphere, in the country flexibly and efficiently. The model of practical ethno-policy created and consistently implemented in China can be characterized as quite effective, flexible, and adaptive. It contributes to the implementation of one of the key tasks of nation-building and political development such as consolidation of various peoples of the country around the Han Chinese people as the natural historical, cultural, and political "core" of the Chinese statehood while preserving institutionalized guarantees for ethnic and religious minorities.

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