Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
[Symposium Event] How to overcome diversity and create homogeneity- the CCP’s current minority policies in historical and international perspectives
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Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik discusses what we observe in Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia as current minority policies of the CCP by relating to on-going academic debates in the PRC and the repertoires of historical as well as international experiences they draw onto. She argues that the experience of the dissolution of the Soviet Union provoked a re-assessment of minority policies pursued since 1978 under Deng Xiaoping. While Xi Jinping propagates the idea that economic development is not enough to prevent minorities from going against the Han majority academics are still discussing intensively to which degree the creation of a homogeneous nation state is feasible and possible in a multi-ethnic setting. This discussion can be traced back to the Qing dynasty and went through several rounds of re-defining minority policies during the period between 1911 and 1949. However, never before in history have rulers in China dared to impose homogeneity by coercion. Xi Jinping is the first ruler to allow for this to happen.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik is professor emeritus at the Department for East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, and programme director for China at CSA (Center for Strategic Analysis, Austria). She is a corresponding member of the Academy of Science Austria and a member of its Academy Council. She is best known internationally for her research on Chinese and CCP historiography, as well as on politics and memory in the PRC (with a special focus on the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution). Recently, she has been finalizing a book on the history of East Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries and has been quite active in public discussions on the changing role of the PRC in the current international order. She teaches at the University of Vienna and at the Vienna School of International Studies.
Commentator: Dr. Guldana Salimjan
Moderator: Dr. Timothy Cheek
This event was hosted by the Centre of Chinese Research at the Institute of Asian Research, SPPGA.
[Symposium Event] How to overcome diversity and create homogeneity- the CCP’s current minority policies in historical and international perspectives
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik discusses what we observe in Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia as current minority policies of the CCP by relating to on-going academic debates in the PRC and the repertoires of historical as well as international experiences they draw onto. She argues that the experience of the dissolution of the Soviet Union provoked a re-assessment of minority policies pursued since 1978 under Deng Xiaoping. While Xi Jinping propagates the idea that economic development is not enough to prevent minorities from going against the Han majority academics are still discussing intensively to which degree the creation of a homogeneous nation state is feasible and possible in a multi-ethnic setting. This discussion can be traced back to the Qing dynasty and went through several rounds of re-defining minority policies during the period between 1911 and 1949. However, never before in history have rulers in China dared to impose homogeneity by coercion. Xi Jinping is the first ruler to allow for this to happen.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik is professor emeritus at the Department for East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, and programme director for China at CSA (Center for Strategic Analysis, Austria). She is a corresponding member of the Academy of Science Austria and a member of its Academy Council. She is best known internationally for her research on Chinese and CCP historiography, as well as on politics and memory in the PRC (with a special focus on the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution). Recently, she has been finalizing a book on the history of East Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries and has been quite active in public discussions on the changing role of the PRC in the current international order. She teaches at the University of Vienna and at the Vienna School of International Studies.
Commentator: Dr. Guldana Salimjan
Moderator: Dr. Timothy Cheek
This event was hosted by the Centre of Chinese Research at the Institute of Asian Research, SPPGA.
