Although ethnic politics is not the Achilles heel of the People's Republic of China as it was for the former Soviet Union, it is an important and multifaceted set of issues that necessarily command the attention of China's leaders. Ethnic China presents a dozen well-crafted, thought-provoking, and well-balanced chapters by Chinese American scholars on a broad range of issues relating to ethnicity. They reveal a gap between rosy official depictions of a harmonious, ethnically well-integrated society and a rather grimmer reality in which rapid economic development is not a panacea for all the problems that exist in the multi-ethnic society of contemporary China.

Steven I. Levine, University of Montana

As the authors grapple with a range of challenging issues, they offer valuable perspectives on some of the most difficult questions facing both China’s Communist Party leaders and Americans responsible for the formulation of human rights policies toward China. The authors, all Chinese scholars working in American colleges and universities, offer unique insights as they grapple with sensitive questions relating to Chinese national identity, political unity, and human rights. These thought-provoking studies of historical and contemporary issues of ethnic identity and politics in China will challenge both Chinese and American readers to question their assumptions about issues ranging from Tibet and Xinjiang to the foundations and efficacy of American human rights policies toward China.

Harold M. Tanner, University of North Texas