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Zhonghua minzu is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality. Collectively, the term refers to the 56 ethnic groups of China, but being a part of the Zhonghua minzu does not mean one must have Chinese nationality (p=Zhōngguó guójí) and thus have an obligation to be loyal to the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The Republic of China (ROC) of the Beiyang (1912–1927) period developed the term to describe Han Chinese ( hanzu) and four other major ethnic groups (the Manchu people, Mongols, Hui people, and Tibetan people) based on Five Races Under One Union. Conversely, Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) envisioned it as a unified composite of Han and non-Han people.
The PRC adopted Zhonghua minzu after the death of Mao Zedong. It was used to describe the Han Chinese and other ethnic groups as a collective Chinese family. Since the late 1980s, replaced the term , signalling a shift of nationality and minority policy from a multinational communist people's statehood of China to one multi-ethnic Chinese nation state with one single Chinese national identity.
Dulimbai gurun () is the Manchu name for China. It has the same meaning as the Chinese name . Hauer 2007 , p. 117. Dvořák 1895 , p. 80. Wu 1995 , p. 102. The Qing adopted the Han Chinese imperial model but considered the Manchu and Chinese names for "China" to be equivalent. It used "China" to describe the entirety of the state and its territory regardless of ethnic composition. The 'Chinese language' ( Dulimbai gurun i bithe) referred to Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages. Zhongguo zhi ren (中國之人; Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma 'Chinese people') referred to all Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing. The Qing used phrases like or to portray itself as a unifying force between the "inner" Han Chinese and the "outer" non-Han like the Mongols and Tibetans. Dunnell 2004 , pp. 76–77.
These terms were used in official documents. "China" was commonly used in international communications and treaties such as the Treaty of Nanking. A Manchu language memorial used Dulimbai gurun to proclaim the 1759 conquest of Dzungaria. Dunnell 2004 , p. 77. Dunnell 2004 , p. 83. Elliott 2001 , p. 503. A Manchu language version of a treaty with the Russian Empire concerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits called people from the Qing as "people of the central kingdom ( Dulimbai gurun)". Cassel 2011 , p. 205. Cassel 2012 , p. 205. Cassel 2011 , p. 44. Cassel 2012 , p. 44. In the Manchu official Tulisen's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut Mongol leader Ayuka Khan, it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "people of the Central Kingdom" ( dulimba-i gurun) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus. Perdue 2009 , p. 218. Before nationalism, loyalty was generally to the city-state, the feudal fief and its lord or, in the case of China, to a dynastic state. Some Han nationalism such as Sun Yat-sen initially described the Manchus as "foreign invaders" to be expelled, and planned to establish a Han nation-state modelled closely after Germany and Japan; this was discarded because alienating non-Han groups potentially meant the loss of imperial territory. This development in Chinese thinking was mirrored in the expansion of the meaning of the term Zhonghua minzu to encompass Five Races Under One Union based on Qing ethnic categories; the term was originally created by the late-Qing philologist Liang Qichao and only referred to the Han Chinese. This revision of Zhonghua minzu was used as early as 1912 by the Republic of China to supports claims of sovereignty over all Qing territories. By 1920, Sun Yat-sen also supported the creation of a "Chinese nation" from the various ethnic groups. This conflicted with the views of non-Han groups like the Mongols and Tibetans; they considered their fealty to be held by the Qing sovereign, and whose abdication left them independent and without obligations to the new Chinese state.
After the founding of the PRC, the concept of Zhonghua minzu became influenced by Soviet nationalities policy. Officially, the PRC is a unitary state composed of 56 ethnic groups, of which the Han are by far the largest. The concept of Zhonghua minzu is seen as an all-encompassing category consisting of people within the borders of the PRC.
This term has continued to be invoked and remains a powerful concept in China into the 21st century. In mainland China, it continues to hold use as the leaders of China need to unify into one political entity a highly diverse set of ethnic and social groups as well as to mobilize the support of overseas Chinese in developing China. The term is included in article 22 of the Regulations on United Front Work of the Chinese Communist Party: "...promote national unity and progress, and enhance the identification of the masses of all ethnic groups with the great motherland, the Chinese nation ( Zhonghua minzu), Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics." Zhonghua minzu is also one of the five identifications.
In Taiwan, it has been invoked by former President Ma Ying-jeou as a unifying concept that includes the people of both Taiwan and mainland China without a possible interpretation that Taiwan is part the People's Republic of China.
The concept of Zhonghua minzu nevertheless also leads to the reassessment of the role of many traditional hero figures. Heroes such as Yue Fei and Zheng Chenggong, who were originally often considered to have fought for China against barbarian incursions, have been re-characterized by some as minzu yingxiong ('ethnic heroes') who fought not against barbarians but against other members of the Zhonghua minzu—the Jurchens and Manchus respectively. At the same time, China exemplified heroes such as Genghis Khan, who became a national hero as a member of the Zhonghua minzu.
Reverence for the legendary ancestor of the Chinese people, the Yellow Emperor, has intensified, and in some regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet, there are individuals who feel resentment toward being subsumed under the concept of the "Zhonghua minzu" .
Furthermore, resistance to Chinese nationalism also exists among Taiwanese independence advocates and the Hong Kong localist camp. 大中華膠的懺悔 In response to this, Hong Kong nationalism emerged, and Taiwanese nationalism, advocated by Taiwanese historian Su Beng, gained traction. The theory that Hongkongers constitute a distinct ethnic group, known as Hong Kong ethnic theory, was also influenced by these ideas 倉田徹、「 雨傘運動とその後の香港政治- 一党支配と分裂する多元的市民社会」『アジア研究』 2017年 63巻 1号 p.68-84, , アジア政経学会.
The concept of the Chinese nation has also been discussed in connection with territorial disputes, based on the notion that “the land inhabited by the Chinese nation should be governed by a single state” 論香港人之身份（戴毛畏） - 熱新聞 YesNews. These ideas are referred to as Greater Chinese nationalism, and in Hong Kong, supporters of such ideology are often mocked with the term 大中華膠的懺悔 立場新聞. The term “Greater China” itself originates from the traditional idea that China has historically been a Great Unity.
Liu Zhongjing, a political theorist residing in the United States, has argued that the concept of the Chinese nation is a political fabrication and has advocated for the theory of Zhu-Xiaism (諸夏主義).
Zhao Dong of the Preparatory Committee for the Ryukyu Special Autonomous Region of China, which claims that Okinawa is Chinese territory, stated that "Ryukyu is part of the Chinese nation's domain" 中華民族琉球特別自治区準備委員会のインタビュー動画 【亞視清盤】又有白武士 內地電子商人趙東願注資六千萬.
In August 1948, Kiyuna Tsugumasa, a former spy for the Republic of China, declared, “We are part of the Chinese nation and must support the liberation of our Ryukyuan brothers” .
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