Managed Mobilization: Ethnic Identity and Political Participation in China

How does ethnic identity affect political participation in China? The Chinese government gathers information and shapes public opinion through mass mobilization. These efforts include the managed mobilization of politically sensitive ethnic minorities. We draw on a dataset of the preferred political activities among 8,000 individuals in China, including more than 1,500 ethnic minority group members and find that politically sensitive minority groups rarely stay silent when faced with problems. Instead, they are more likely than the majority Han to participate and express grievances. However, ethnic minorities overwhelmingly prefer political participation by directly contacting the government, that is, through institutionalized and carefully managed channels. We show that populist authoritarian governments encourage political action by ethnic minorities through institutionalized channels while penalizing confrontational activities. As these minorities are integrated into Chinese society, measured by language proficiency, they tend to become politically more sophisticated in using nontraditional channels such as the internet and confrontation for problem solving.