Building a Shared and Harmonious Society in China: An ethnic minority perspective

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) national identification of 55 nationalities, thereafter called ethnic minorities (EMs), –on the basis of shared mode of production, shared territory, shared language, shared psychological make-up, and the follow-up promotion of ethnic equality and solidarity –bears many similarities to the concept of ‘shared society’ promoted by Club de Madrid in the vision of building social cohesion and inclusion. By reflecting on Confucian vision of harmonious society and Chinese experiences in integrating EMs into the nation building and national development in the last seven decades, this article, in reference to the definition and principles of ‘shared society’, argues that different modes of perceiving the interrelations between an individual and the group in multicultural contexts (particularly under modernization and globalization) often lead to different understanding of ‘participation’ and ‘human rights’ in building a shared/harmonious society. Thus a shared society is never a homogenous one, but an integration of diversity in which a certain degree of group value and interest should prevail.