zlacker

Basically China is too big and doesn't have good natural internal borders so throughout history it has only held together when the central government was especially ruthless. It's just too easy to steamroll off of some early military victories, so all insurrection needs to be quashed before it ever really gets started. This means you need a brutal police state.

In modern times the traditions of the past remain even after the natural barriers of communication time and mobilization speed have been eradicated by modern technology. The rules of the past become a part of the culture, language, and customs of the people, even after they are theoretically obsolete. Finally, there is a natural fear of retribution you see when a minority oppresses the majority for a long time. The minority doesn't want to be treated as they treated the majority for so long, and are terrified that if they give an inch they'll find themselves hanging from a pole just like so many of their victims.

>>jandre+(OP)
China is also working very hard to get rid of its minorities by simply distributing Han Chinese everywhere.

>>xenosp+O5
It's basically ethnic cleansing by dilution. In Xinjiang and Tibet it appears to go beyond just dilution, but that is the primary mechanism. When I was living there, there were tons of incentives to encourage Han Chinese to migrate to both Xinjiang and Tibet to completely dilute the local minorities to the point of irrelevancy.

>>xenosp+O5
Get rid of minority? You have no idea what the real situation in China.In China, minority has much better benefits than Han people. If a child born from a minority and a Han parents, the parents will usually choose minority as his/her ethnity. Because the kids can have additional points at the college entrance exams, they can have two or even three children when Han can have only one child in the past. When a Han and a minority commit the same crime, the minority get less punishment.

In a world like today, are you blaming people moving to other regions just to get jobs? Because that is what happens in China and else where in the world. It has nothing to with “getting rid of minorities”.

>>maland+3H
In the US we called this "the melting pot". It doesn't matter what your ethnicity was before you moved here, your traditions and beliefs get integrated into American society so you are just an American.

This sort of thing has had a lot of pushback lately from well meaning but IMHO misguided folks who complain about "cultural appropriation".

You aren't asked to forget your cultural traditions, you're asked to bring your neighbors into them. To share the culture. But also to admit that the edges are probably going to be sanded off and you're going to see people from outside of your group participating.