China's new ethnic affairs commissioner 'has little power'
Appointment of Hui Muslim as head of the State Council's ethnic affairs body will do little to ease the country's ethnic tensions, experts say
The appointment of a Hui Muslim as head of the State Council's ethnic affairs body may seem strategic, but experts say this will do little to ease the country's ethnic tensions as the chief will have limited political power.
Wang Zhengwei, 55, chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the northwest, succeeds Yang Jing as head of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC).
Wang is also the youngest vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), whose meeting ended on Tuesday.
However, Ilhan Tohti, a Central University for Nationalities economics professor and an ethnic Uygur, said the commission "has had the lowest political impact among the 25 departments under the State Council since [the SEAC] was set up in 1949, no matter what official rankings its heads have held".
"As an ethnic Hui from Ningxia, Wang might be more familiar with Uygurs, but he can't influence China's ethnic policy because the role of CPPCC is just a 'political vase' [for display]," the academic said.\
As an ethnic Hui from Ningxia, Wang might be more familiar with Uygurs, but he can't influence China's ethnic policy because the role of CPPCC is just a 'political vase' [for display]
Ningxia has been dubbed the "Chinese Mecca" since the Ming dynasty and boasts a long history of Islamic culture. Located on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, more than 80 per cent of the region's 6.6 million inhabitants are ethnic Hui.