On Tuesday, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and State Council released a document designed to guide China’s ethnic policies in 2015 and beyond. The guidelines, titled “Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Ethnic Work in New Situations,” seek to solve the lasting puzzle of how to wholly integrate ethnic minorities into the Chinese state.
Topping Beijing’s list is fostering the development of both academics and officials from minority backgrounds. The issue of representation at the official level is especially sensitive as it speaks to the sense of disenfranchisement some ethnic minorities feel. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there have only been four non-Han officials appointed to the Politburo – and none have ever made it to the elite level of the Politburo Standing Committee. Currently, all members of the 25- member Politburo are of Han ethnicity.[Source]