Analyzing the changing and developing environment is a basic premise of research on and finding solutions for all the contemporary issues the Chinese military faces. From now into the near future, under both domestic and international forces, the Chinese military is at a special period defined by four stages.

(A) A stage in which the military faces the challenge of transformation
     
At the beginning of the 21st century, the new military transformation gradually entered into a phase of qualitative change. Under its impact, international competition has become more intense in the military field; major countries around the world further have accelerated the pace of military transformation. In a struggle for world hegemony and a full range of military superiority, the U.S. has accelerated its implementation of the global military strategic adjustment and military transformation. Russia has also speeded up its military reform in recent years, with significant success in modernizing weaponry and professionalizing the armed forces. Britain, France, Germany and neighboring countries, including India, Japan, and South Korea have also adopted an array of new measures in the military. Driven by the new global military revolution, the modern military will continue to change in weaponry, combat models, organizational structure, and military theory. Information technology weapons will become a key factor in combat capability; new weapons will be developed at an accelerating speed; medium-to-long-range precision strikes will increasingly show the military’s power; non-linear, non-contact combat will become the main operational mode; the combat field will be multi-dimensional with land, sea, air and the electromagnetic field, with integrated joint operations becoming the basic form of combat; “network-centric warfare” and other new combat theories will gradually be applied to real combat, shaping the information warfare. Light, multi-functional, modular, intelligent forces are paving the way for future development, and an informationalized armed forces is entering the stage.

With the deepening of the new military transformation, the imbalance of global strategic forces will be intensified. In human history, the advantage of Western countries’ guns and cannons over swords and spears in Asian, African and Latin American countries has turned into that of Western countries’ information technology over the developing countries’ mechanized and semi-mechanized technology. This torrent of global military transformation poses a serious challenge to the Chinese army. To avoid the tragedy of swords and spears against guns and cannons, China must continue to accelerate the pace of its military transformation.

(B) A stage of broadened strategic missions

Eying the new historic conditions and new epochal requirements, Comrade Hu Jintao has proposed the military’s historic mission for the new century and new stage: “To provide solid assurance for the CCP to strengthen its ruling position, to provide a strong security guarantee for national development in this important strategic period, to provide strategic support for the expansion of national interests, and to safeguard world peace and play an important role in promoting joint development.”

In the new stage and the new century, the meaning and scope of China’s national security is continuously expanding, gradually from the “security of national sovereignty” to the “security of national interests,” from “three-dimensional space security” to “multi-dimensional space security,” from the traditional security field to political security, systemic security, economic security, science and technological security, social security, cultural security, information security, ideological security, military security and many other arenas. Generally speaking, China is endowed with a good environment and conditions for peaceful development; however national security issues are becoming more comprehensive, complex and volatile in nature. Many threats are intertwined:  traditional security threats and non-traditional security threats, realistic threats and potential threats, military security forms and other security forms, domestic security issues and international security issues, which together constitute the overall situation of China’s national security. In such a complex security situation, military security is in a particularly important position. The missions and tasks of the military must evolve with the development of the country, and extend with the expansion of the national strategic interests.

(C) A stage of complicated environment for military buildup

China’s military forces are operating in China’s overall environment. The contemporary social reform has entered into a crucial phase, characterized by the “restlessness of modernization.” During this period, some deep conflicts that accumulated during the reform and opening up are prominent. Various ideologies and cultures clash; all kinds of social conflicts interact; industrial structures rapidly adjust; the social fabric dramatically changes; the gap between rich and poor further widens; and unstable factors in society increase. Compared with other developed countries, China is unique because social transformation and institutional transition started at the same time. Economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological conflicts are intertwined and complicated, making China a typical high-risk society. … Revolution in military affairs is not taking place in a vacuum, but rather in a complex social environment. All kinds of unhealthy social thoughts and trends will inevitably be reflected in the military sphere to varying degrees. In addition, the outside hostile forces view the army as a great barrier to its strategic schemes to “westernize” or “divide” China. They advocate “separating the military and the party,” “depoliticizing the army,” and “nationalization of the military.” In essence, they attempt to corrupt our military forces ideologically and politically, and to separate our army from the party’s leadership, in order to subvert our country’s socialist system and the Communist Party’s ruling status. The above factors indicate that we are in a stage of complicated environment for military buildup.

(D) A stage of looming internal conflicts

In response to the serious challenge of the global military transformation, China initiated military reform with Chinese characteristics on a relatively weak foundation. Chinese military forces entered a time of major restructuring, showing conflicts and characteristics inherent to a typical transformation period, which can be summarized as follows: the old system is broken; the new system has not yet formed; weapons and equipment, operational theory, personnel structure, organizational structure, and education and training are all undergoing a major transition. Both old and new conflicts are intertwined; deep-rooted problems have surfaced; many have emerged and the emerging issues must be resolved; foreseeable or unforeseeable problems may occur at any time; and the task of reform or change is very heavy and arduous. Specifically speaking, the contemporary Chinese military is facing a series of conflicts and complex problems: conflict between backward scientific and technological personnel and weapons and equipment of a modern level, between the current military system and future development, between the military policy and developing a socialist market economy, and between the military’s capabilities and its mission. It is the Chinese military’s historic task to effectively solve a series of conflicts within the army buildup.
 
The above-mentioned “four stages” are intertwined, influencing and constraining each other. They constitute the coordinators of the new era for China’s military forces. In such a coordinated system, the contemporary Chinese military inevitably faces three complex strategic relationships.

(1) The coincidence of “double transformation”: military transformation and social change
 
The interaction of military transformation and social transition is an important “Chinese characteristic” that differentiates China from other countries, especially Western countries, China thus faces extremely complex issues that Western countries never faced. The military transformation in U.S.-led Western countries was carried out in a quite mature market economy and stable social environment, with the social risks associated with a period of the “restlessness of modernization” nonexistent. There was no significant conflict between military transformation and socio-economic transition; the transformation in these countries’ military field was “a single change.” In contrast, China’s military transformation is carried out in the macro environment of social changes, conflicts during military transformation, and conflicts during socio-economic transition interacting with each other. The nation is experiencing a “double transformation” in both the military field and the social system. In particular, the immature economic environment and unstable social environment during this period will inevitably have China’s military transformation facing a number of conflicts and issues that Western countries never encountered.

(2) The coexistence of the “dual task” of mechanization development and information technology buildup

From the perspective of China’s own military development under the current situation, the core issue to be solved is the modernization of China’s military. Modernization is a dynamic development concept, with different special implications in different time periods. The most essential feature of the current military modernization is information technology modernization, which is the strategic objective that militaries from all over the world strive to achieve during the global trend of military transformation. In the West, and in particular the U. S., its military transformation towards information technology modernization is taking place after its military has achieved a high degree of mechanization. Therefore, the U.S military only faces a “single task” of how to modernize the information technology. By contrast, China’s military hasn’t finished the mechanization part, but needs to move towards information technology modernization at the same time. Therefore, China’s military inevitably faces problems of “dual buildup.” This is one of most important features that China’s military has to face at the initial stage of transformation. It is a major problem that cannot be avoided by China’s military during its development.

(3) The “dual capacity” of winning wars and carrying out non-war military operations
 
The ability to win a war is an army’s core military capability, which is determined by the nature of the army’s functions. The top priority of the Chinese army’s buildup is to be able to win a war at all times. However, beginning from the 1990s, non-traditional security threats have increased significantly. They have become a major security threat to human society, and thus have raised new demands on the army’s military capabilities. Normally speaking, the concept of non-traditional security threats is in relation to traditional threats, which mainly refer to threats of war breakouts that a nation, an ethnic group, or a political group face, or even that the international community faces. Non-traditional security threats are threats, other than a war or a military threat, that any sovereign state and human society face for its survival and development. They include  threats involving institutional security, terrorism, major natural disasters, the outbreak of contagious diseases, economic and financial security, ecological security, energy and resource security, culture and information security, smuggling and drug trafficking, transnational crimes, and illegal immigration. Many of these threats are within the scope of or related to military operations. The military faces a series of new operation modes, including operations of anti-terrorism, maintaining stability, peacekeeping, disaster rescue, border control, protection of public transportation, international aid, evacuation and protection for overseas citizens, information support, and international joint military exercises. Thus, non-war military capability is an important parameter to measure the military’s capacity to deal with non-traditional security threats.

In the crisscross of history and reality, China’s military faces a series of complex strategic issues, which can be summarized in three topics.

(1) Scientifically coordinate both the military transformation and social transition, coordinate the reform and development of elements within military system against the background that both national economic and defense development have entered into a crucial stage.

In the current society, the army must face a reality: at the historic stage of social transition, the revolution in the military cannot exceed the range of what is allowed by the extent of social changes, and cannot cause any political or social instability. In this sense, tackling China’s military needs is no longer determined by the military’s own situation. Whether a number of major military policies can be timely issued is more dependent upon what is tolerated by the social transitions, especially the transitions at the current crucial stage. From the national level point of view, when important reforms are taking place in several major areas, how to handle the relationship between military transformation and social transition, so as to match the reforms in political, economic, and other areas, is an important issue that has to be resolved during China’s overall development and progress. If these problems cannot be correctly resolved, the process of national development and military buildup will both be seriously affected.
 
 At the same time, it’s necessary to scientifically coordinate various elements within the army system. Military buildup includes quite rich contents, the major issues being the development of four elements (weapons and equipment, military personnel, organizational structure, and combat theories). With the rise of the nation’s comprehensive power, and science and technology level, the army’s weapons and equipment have made a leap forward. However, it is worth noting that our armed forces may suffer losses or lead to historic tragedies in future operations by only focusing on the weapons and equipment while neglecting other aspects, or by not coordinating well with other factors. . . . Therefore, from a historic and practical point of view, being guided by the Concept of Scientific Development and comprehensively coordinating the development of the four elements is the basis for deepening military reform elements.
 
(2) The improvement of the armed forces’ capabilities to win the information warfare, and to carry out non-war operations against the background that the world’s military revolution is experiencing rapid development. National security is under multidimensional threats.

The ability to win wars and other military abilities are components of our military’s capacity to carry out diversified military tasks. Experience has proved that the ability to win the war is the basis of other military capabilities. Conversely, other military capabilities help empower the capacity to win the war. However, there are three main differences between the two. First, the objectives are different: the ability to win wars directly serves the purpose of war, and responding to traditional security threats, while other military capabilities serve other operations, mainly responding to non-traditional security threats. Secondly, the content is different: the core military capability buildup and other military capacity buildup are different in theoretical research, commanding system, strength buildup, organizational structure, equipment, and laws and regulations. Thirdly, requirements are different: under normal times, there are signs when a war is about to break out and opportunities for the military to prepare, while non-war military operations deal with sudden and emergent situations, focusing on the preparation on a daily basis and a quick response to emergencies.

The connection and contrast of the two military capacities requires that China’s armed forces must coordinate well between developing the capacity to win a war and the capacity to carry out other military tasks. Non-war military, based on being able to win a war, has its own special laws to follow, including theories, human resources, equipment, and combat tactics. It is necessary to highly emphasize researching the specialties of non-war military capacities due to its particular focus, policy, and profession. At the same time, one needs to avoid prioritizing the non-war military capacities to an improper level. Our military must deal with a variety of security threats, the primary being invasion, subversion, or secession. In other words, the traditional security threats are still major factors affecting national security and development. Overemphasis of the importance of non-war capacities and playing down war preparations may cause damage and irreparable loss to our nation and military forces.

(3) Ensure that our military is under the party’s command and at the service of the people, against the background of ever-deepening reform and opening up
 
First, insist on equipping the whole army with party’s innovative theory. Our army is a people’s army that is under the party’s absolute leadership, and under the party’s banner. It is our army’s infrastructure and long term strategic task to consistently equip the army with theory, to help officers and soldiers strengthen their ideals and beliefs, and to forge a strong spiritual backbone for our army, for the purpose of maintaining a firm and correct political direction for the advanced nature of the army.
 
Secondly, always put the ideological and political work as the top priority. Under the new circumstance, the social environment and conditions to carry out the ideological and political work have gone through profound changes, with the work’s areas, targets, and tasks being very different from before. The new situation thus requires to continue exploring and grasping the laws in the ideological and political work that fit the new age, and to do the job with more relevance, effectiveness, and initiative, so as to maximize its service to the army.
 
Thirdly, unswervingly adhere to the party’s leadership of the army and a series of fundamental systems. The highest military leadership and command orders come from the Central Committee of the Chinese Community Party and the Central Military Commission; the party committees at different levels within the military should adhere to the organizational principle of Democratic Centralism; (army units) should implement a unified collective leadership under the party committees; units above the regiment level should establish a political commissar and political organs; each company should have its own party branch. These elements constitute a rigorous, scientific, and integrated system to achieve the party’s integration with the military structure, implement the integration of the party’s leadership and the military’s administrative leadership, and provide a solid organizational assurance for the party to exercise it absolute leadership over the armed forces.

Endnote:
[1] Study Times, October 26, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=3008&bid=7

“At present, the new socialist ethnic relationship in the ethnic regions, along with political stability, solidarity and common prosperity, have basically been established. But the fight of anti-separatists and the social security situation in ethnic minority areas are still grim. Under the cover of ‘national independence,’ religious extremists, ethnic separatist forces, and international terrorists on the one hand openly or secretly create public opinion, and confuse and poison people’s minds; on the other hand they vigorously conduct violent terrorist activities and undermine social stability. In some places, there has even been serious violent looting, and group fighting. How to accurately determine and grasp the new features that will impact western ethnic unity and social stability, and then take positive and effective measures to properly deal with ethnic relations will have great significance for further strengthening national unity, safeguarding the motherland’s reunification, and promoting national development and comprehensive progress in minority areas.

New Features That Presently Affect Social Stability in Western Ethnic Regions

1. The significance of international, geographic and political factors. Since the 1990’s, the unrest in the international situation, the rampant terrorist activities, and the expansion of religious extremist forces have provided the growing space and soil for the separatist forces in the border ethnic regions. According to official statistics, at present, there are about 50 Xinjiang ethnic separatist organizations or groups abroad and they hold activities in dozens of countries. These separatist organizations carry out reactionary propaganda in the U.S. and Europe, and infiltrate into China through the mail using printed materials and audio-visual products, radio broadcasts, the Internet, and other channels. In Central Asia and South Asia, they have smuggled arms and drugs, infiltrated personnel, and directly organized, directed and carried out violence and terrorist activities. They have an extremely complicated international background.

2. New conflicts from the market economy and social transformation. Since the reform and opening, with the constant development of the socialist market economic system, the impact of the laws of the market economy, including the intensifying social transformation, people’s mobility, the competition for resources, and the diversity of social interests have created new contradictions and problems for work and life in the multi-ethnic region. Since the educational and cultural undertakings in ethnic areas are still under development, the nine-year compulsory education is not widely available. There are serious problems for the young children, who stay out of school and drop out of school. The improvement of the minority’s culture quality is affected. It is difficult (for the minorities) to adapt to job competition under the market economy and their communication with other ethnic groups are affected. At the same time, with the influence of the market economy, in order to find employment opportunities and increase income, more and more minorities move into the inland and the coastal cities to obtain work and do business. In the eastern and central cities where the Han dominate, because the cadres lack proper understanding and the related policies and regulations are not in place, minorities’ interests and demands do not received enough attention and have thus not been implemented. Examples include the employment problems of minority migrant workers, the problems of their children going to school, the problems of their political rights and livelihood, etc. Currently, there are no corresponding policies to resolve these problems, which often cause these minorities to express discontent and affect ethnic unity and stability.

3. The negative impact of development patterns. To accelerate economic development, our government carried out a series of large-scale projects in the minority areas, such as the construction of reservoirs, power plants, railways, and highways, and so on. In order to complete these projects, ethnic minority people have made tremendous sacrifices. But some companies often only paid attention to construction speed, regardless of ecological and environmental protection, and caused a lot of pollution and destruction. Because China’s resources and the ecological compensation mechanism are not well established, these projects brought more benefits to the country but few benefits to local minorities. For example, as the standard compensation for land expropriation is low, the subsidies given to the migration residents in the reservoirs areas for their resettlement are not enough. The income from power plants has not been shared enough with the local minority groups, or was not shared at all. In this regard, the minority people have strong opinions. To some extent, this deepened the minority people’s ‘sense of deprivation’ and their dissatisfaction. In some places, these things have resulted in conflicts with the government or with relevant departments. A handful of ethnic separatists use these kinds of problems to agitate and thus endanger social stability and ethnic unity.

4. Cultural conflicts have become prominent factors that cause social instability. Different ethnic groups in the western areas live under very different social environments. For a long time, they have had different economic lives, systems, cultures and social relations. There has been a lack of internal unity and social integration among all ethnic groups, and the heterogeneity has been strongly displayed. A common geographic area has not formed a common culture and the various cultures lack interaction and interdependence. (Different ethnic groups) have difficulty communicating, but easily have contradictions and conflicts, which affects social stability. For example, some Han comrades know little about customs and habits of ethnic minorities (including contraindications), so they lack respect; some Han cadres who work long-term in ethnic minority areas do not want to learn the ethnics’ languages, and some even look down upon their languages. Thus it is harder for them to do their jobs, and it also affects the improvement of ethnic relationships. Some minority comrades easily attach too much importance to their customs and treat them as political issues. They consider the inadvertent violation of their customs by a number of Han comrades as acts of political discrimination against minorities, leading to an increase in the psychological barrier between both sides.

Analysis of the Cause of Frequent Social Stability Problems in Ethnic Regions

1. The predominance of conflicts of interest causes social instability. Social stability problems in ethnic minority areas are largely due to poverty, and the imbalance of regional economic development deepens ethnic misconceptions. With the growth of interest groups, a group consciousness based on different ethnic groups pursuing different economic interests is also established. It gradually becomes the internal driving force for the activities of interest groups. Although the fundamental interests of the different interest groups are consistent, their specific interests and aspirations are clearly different. The distribution of interests leads to a clear differentiation in social status, power and wealth among members. The interest competition between different social strata and groups has become increasingly clear, which makes different ethnic groups very sensitive about their own interests. It creates psychological instability, and the potential factors that lead to social instability.

2. Institutional arrangements need to be improved. At present, dealing with the relationships between ethnic and class divisions, ethnic and country, as well as the ethnics’ own development problems, is based on the proper moral relationship between the ethnics, and is required to analyze and solve problems from a political perspective. This prompts the corresponding requirements of our country’s political structure and other important political systems. How our country’s political system can, on the one hand, properly reflect and take into account the desire of various ethnic groups to participate in the country’s management and protect the powers and rights of all ethnic groups, and on the other hand, effectively integrate various ethnic groups, ensure our country’s unity and authority, and have firm legal institutional arrangements, is a very important basic political issue impacting the continuous social stability and the sustained stability of the state. If not handled properly, not only can the ethnic issues not be effectively controlled, but they will also aggravate the conflicts between ethnic groups and between the ethnic groups and classes.

3. The negative effects of the acceleration of urbanization impact social stability. Urbanization is an important component of modernization. On the one hand, it promotes development in ethnic regions and fundamentally guarantees political stability in the regions. On the other hand, it is bound to have a dramatic impact on the existing political system, benefit distribution, traditional culture and social structure in the ethnic regions, and thus to some extent affect the political stability in ethnic regions. With the rapid progress of urbanization, from the horizontal point of view, the development gaps between the ethnic regions and the inland and coastal regions are constantly widening. From the realities of ethnic minority areas, urbanization has brought the issues of employment, mobile population management, social security, religions, etc, to the minority peoples. From a long-term perspective, urbanization may mitigate the imbalance of economic development between the Han and minorities, but in the meantime, the urban population in minority areas is low, the industrialization level is not high, the layout of urban space is irrational, basic production factors are short, and the living environment is deteriorating. In the short term, the existence of all these real conditions will bring more issues to the ethnic minorities, while adapting to rapid urbanization, and will thus become the economic factors that affect national social stability.

4. The management ability and the government’s policy adjustments lag behind. The division of interests makes the citizens have the desire to express their opinions and gain their own interests. At the same time, it enhances their consciousness of their rights, of the law, and of the competition with other groups. They expect to influence the actions and results of the regional autonomous government organizations that are making decisions for the public. They will strive to gain, be aware of, and protect their own interests. All these tendencies create pressure on the local government decision-making organization and challenge the governing ability of the government. As a matter of fact, the government lacks the ability and problem-solving approaches for the new phenomena and new characteristics appearing in the fields of the economy, politics and social life in the minority regions. This has easily led to a passive situation for the government in dealing with the work in those regions. We can learn many lessons from the “June 25th” episode in the Shaoguan region of Guangdong Province. [2] (About developing the coping strategies,) for example, introducing the local surplus labor from the minority regions in the west can both alleviate the shortage of workers in the developed areas in the east and increase the employment opportunities and the income of the minority groups. This is a win-win strategy. However, the enterprises and the relevant government organizations should enhance the consciousness of maintaining social stability. Under the situation that “the three forces”[3] are active, an issue that should be strongly emphasized is how to properly treat the relationship between the Han ethnic group (the majority) and the minorities, sufficiently realize its importance, effectively release the tension, communicate with each other and manage to prevent the occurrence of massive events.
 
5. The negative elements in a multi-culture affect social stability. Historically, the excellent cultures from different minority groups have mingled and merged with each other. The common Chinese culture was formed during that process and we value the unification of the country and oppose the separation of political powers. This kind of positive social psychological environment makes the minority groups in the west form the positive social and political mentality of equality, harmony, respect and unification between the different ethnic groups. However, some regions, at the same time, also have a negative social, cultural, and psychological environment. Thus they have developed mentalities that impede social development: self-protection, self-closure, a sense of inferiority, fear of risks, being self-content, local consciousness, and narrow-minded regional identification. They have also easily formed mentalities that affect social stability, such as egalitarianism, single nationality identification, strong discrimination against certain ethnic groups, and a separation of ethnic groups. Those mentalities may quickly spread, grow, and form a blind fanaticism, which induces social and political instability.

Strategies for the Stability of the Western Ethnic Minority Regions

1. Diligently construct an international political environment that is advantageous to us. Due to the complexity and volatility of the international situation and the competition among the political forces of the bordering countries in the west, we must sufficiently take advantage of all kinds of diplomatic resources, interact with the relevant countries, diligently nurture the exterior international environment that opposes separation and terrorism and try our best to minimize the living space for the forces that support separating the nation and terrorism.

2. Speed up economic and social development emphasizing improving the quality of life in the Western minority regions. At present, of the work to do, the most urgent and major task to enhance regional economic development is to speed up social development. The major element is living conditions, which is closely related to people’s happiness and satisfaction. We should solve the problems of getting their basic needs met in regards to food, clothing, shelter, transportation and their safety. We especially should establish a social welfare system that covers all the people in the cities and countryside. Only when the people in the west benefit from social development can we truly build harmonious relationships among different ethnic groups and different social strata, enhance identification with the big Chinese nationality, and lay a solid social foundation for realizing the regional stability of the western minority regions.

3. Vigorously improve the governing and management ability of the local government in the minority regions. The local government should adopt effective measures to improve the quality of public policies. Currently, it is a test for the governing ability of the local government with regard to how to transform the farmers who returned home after working in the cities as temporary workers into a force to advance the economic development in local regions so that they will not produce pressure (on the government) and become a burden to the economy. The government should improve the executive power of policies, enhance policy transparency and responsibility and form a new style of cooperative relationship with the minorities in order to realize long term peace and order in minority regions. In addition, we should speed up the development of the social stability warning system in minority regions so that we can correctly judge the actual situation of social stability, predict and provide warnings about instability factors in time, and provide information and support for the relevant government departments to plan and implement effective measures to maintain social stability and prevent risks affecting social stability.

4. Fully take advantage of the political and economic elites among the minorities as the “Social Stabilizer.” In minority regions, the minority cadres are elites in constructing a united system in relation to political order and political development, and they are local political elites. They have increasingly realized the importance of involvement, management, power and mobilization. We cannot underestimate their influence on the minority political system. They will directly or indirectly influence the order of the minority political process and the continuity of the minority system. We should give them sufficient trust and let them proactively function (in local politics). They generally have good relationships with other people in society, are models for the lower level people to follow, have a relatively large impact on the lower classes in minority groups, and are realistic candidates for us to use to alleviate and dissolve social conflicts. In addition, the well-off middle class in minority regions generally have a moderate reforming attitude toward society, are rational and practical, and are basically not likely to have radical emotions or behaviors in ethnic and religious conflicts; therefore, they also have the function of alleviating different kinds of social conflicts.

5. Enhance the development of a new model of multi-dimensional and unified minority culture. The traditional minority culture with distinctive characteristics contains enormous spiritual wealth and knowledge. We should discover, modify and reform the culture so that it can play an important role in developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, make it develop according to the direction of maintaining social stability, and prevent it from “splitting” the culture of the nation into multiple ethnic groups. First, we need to discover, absorb and learn from multiple ethnic cultures, and create and establish a complete value system and a core ideology that adapts to the socialist market economy and that is acknowledged by all ethnic groups. Second, we need to fully use the positive effect of the traditional ethnic culture, for example, the effect of punishing evil and praising good that it plays in the work of suppressing the use of drugs. Third, we should use the political value of democracy, equality, freedom, fairness, and righteousness as the reference system and take the modern social economical, political and cultural needs into consideration to allocate modern elements to the traditional minority culture and eliminate their mentality of being “people of lower class value,” “people who should be obedient,” and “the people who are servants” among the western minority groups and build up modern citizen characteristics. Fourth, we should continuously eliminate the negative impact of the narrow minded ethnic consciousness (on society) and develop a positive, proactive, healthy and beneficial culture with ethnic characteristics. Last, we should integrate the sources for multi-dimensional ethnic culture and promote the formation of the common wealth of various ethnic cultures.

6. Enhance the management of minority affairs according to the law. First, we should protect the dignity and power of the constitution and the law. Any individual, any organization, and any group should act within the regulations of the constitution and the law. The minority autonomous regions are no exception. Second, we should establish and implement regulations that are complementary to the laws of the minority regions as soon as possible, and quickly establish and implement augmented regulations and laws and other practically needed laws and regulations for minority groups that correspond to laws of the autonomous minority region, for the eventual formation of an intact minority legislative system. Third, we should regulate and perfect the recognized law of the minority regions. Under the premise of insisting on the national law, we should refer to the relative content in ethnic and religious recognized law to establish a viable common law that can maintain the excellent culture of the minority groups as well as ensure the authority and compulsory nature of the national law and regulations. Last, we should ensure the effective implementation of minority laws and regulations and forcefully crack down on the various illegal and criminal activities that endanger the harmony and stability in the minority region.

Endnotes:
[1] Study Times, October 26, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=3005&bid=4
[2] For an in depth analysis of this incident, see: http://chinascope.org/main/content/view/1904/148/
[3] The “three forces” are terrorism, separatism and extremism