Getting Past Old Models of PRC Diversity: Understand the Empire to Understand the Imperial Nation State Yan Sun, From Empire to Nation State: Ethnic Politics in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 368 p. $99.99 hardback; $34.99 paperback; $28.00 e-book

This review essay summarizes the argument of Yan Sun's From Empire to Nation State: Ethnic Politics in China, detailing in particular her analysis of different schools of thought about ethnic policy in China before 2014. The essay critiques Sun's historical background chapters about empire as reiterating long-dismissed models of traditional Chinese empire and failing to accurately categorize the immediate background of Qing empire from which 20th c. Chinese republics emerged. The essay also critiques Sun's central arguments that PRC centralizing policies have been in conflict with its ethnicizing policies, and that identity politics and religion since the 1980s have led to the unrest. The essay points out that assimilation by the PRC party state in the name of integration is likewise ethnicizing identity politics, but Han-centric. The essay concludes that colonialism would be a better framework within which to consider PRC ethnic politics in Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia.

Automated summary

This review essay summarizes Yan Sun's argument about ethnic politics in China, critiquing her analysis of different schools of thought and historical background, and challenging her central arguments about PRC's policies. The essay suggests that considering PRC's ethnic politics through a framework of colonialism may be more appropriate.