Ethnic Issues And Ethnic Policies Since Vietnam 's Reform And Opening

Vietnam is a unified multi-ethnic country, comprising 54ethnic groups.Its ethnic situation, ethic issues and ethnic policies are similar to those of China. This paper firstly focuses on the basic situation of various ethnic groups of Vietnam, covering population, regional distribution, languages and scripts, customs and habits, traditional festivals, and religions and beliefs, describing the ethnic policies conducted by the government in different periods of anti-France struggle and nation-building, peaceful construction, anti-American war, and north-south unification, so as to analyze and summarize the ethnic issues and ethnic policies based on the basic situation and basic process.With Vietnam’s renovation and opening-up as the dividing point, the presentation forms and characteristics of ethnic issues before and after the point are different. Before the renovation and opening-up, as the complicated international and national situations, the ethnic issues of Vietnam faced many problems, the Vietnaminvasionof Cambodia made it isolated by the internationalcommunity; the huge war consumptions and the single economicassistance of the Soviet Union resulted in vicious circle; the Vietnam’s post-war economic depression and the limitation of planned economy as well as the misguidance cause the national economy to stagnate. These actual situations made the ethnic issues of Vietnam more difficult to resolve. Since the implementation of renovation and opening-up policy in 1986, the tension of ethnic issues was alleviated under the correct ideas and policies. But with the unbalanced development of regional economy, the interest conflict among different ethnic groups still existed. The ethnic and religious issues affected each other, highlighting the cross border ethnic issues resulted from drug making, trafficking and taking, smuggling, illegal immigration and transnational marriage. The ethnic separatism issue of "Degarlndependent State" in Central Vietnam, the "Khmer Krom" ethnic separatism of the Khmer peoplein SouthVietnam and the ethnic separatism of "Hmong (Miao) Republic" in NorthVietnam were the three most severe separatism forces that backed by foreignreactionaries. The characteristics of Vietnam’s ethnic issues since the renovation and opening-up reflected in ethic issues resulted in the differencesbetween the urban and rural areas, between the different regions, and between the main ethnic group and minority ethnic groups, and between the cross border ethnic groups.The Vietnam’s ethnic issue has its own historical and actual reasons, resulting in profound national and international influences. In history, the feudal rulers of the Vietnam and the colonists paid no attention to minority ethnic groups, and the wrong guiding policies to ethnic affairs caused problems, which was the man-made reason (class and society); the large number of spontaneous immigrants and cross border ethnic groups as well as the policy-orientated immigration resulted from wrong guiding policies of the government were the historical reasons; the ethnic poverty issue caused by traditional production mode and the old social mechanism was the economic reason of the country’s ethnic issue. Since the implementation of renovation and opening-up, there were practical reasons for ethnic issues. The continuous unbalanced economic development of different regions and the interest conflict among different ethnic groups were the fundamental reasons of ethnic issues; the lack of universality of participants of ethnic politics, the limitation of participating channels, the non-rational behaviors of some participants and indirect participation resulted in lower level of ethnic politics participation, which was the basic reason of ethnic issues; the lower educational level the Vietnampeople and the ethnic psychological imbalance were the hidden reasons; natural disasters and fights for natural resources were direct reasons of ethnic issues; the intervention of foreign powers were outside reasons. The influence of national ethnic issues to Vietnam, collective security of Southeast Asia and globalization is very real and cannot be ignored.Based on sum up of theVietnam’s general ethnic situation, basic reflections of ethnic issues as well as the causes and influences, the paper analyzes and summarizes the ethnic policies of Vietnam since the renovation and opening-up. The polices adopted by the Vietnam for promoting economy include permanent farming and settlement, port building, infrastructure construction, and other preferential policies for improving employment level and optimizing industrial structure. Based on the characteristics, features and law of development of the minority ethnic groups, the Vietnamese government formulated and implemented ethnic educational policies such as enhancing the training of teachers for ethnic education, improving their salaries and other benefits, offering preferential policies for minority students, and increasing financial input for minority children education and infrastructure. It also formulated and implemented ethnic language policy, cultural policy, and medical and health policy in accordance with the ethnic equality principle. Since the renovation and opening-up, the Vietnamese government attached great importance to ethnic cadres, formulating policies to guarantee the selection and appointment of cadres from the minority ethnic groups, and to improve their benefits and overall qualities. It is worth mentioning that the Communist Party of Vietnam has realized rational religious polices are important guarantee of ethnic solidarity and national security, putting forward positive religious polices with Vietnamese characteristics. Moreover, the policy of the Vietnamese government to ethnic Chinese has experienced a dynamic process form absolute exclusion, relative exclusion to inclusion, realizing the important role of ethnic Chinese to the economy of Vietnam. It also offered equal political status to ethnic Chinese at the policy level, expecting them to paly positive role in its economic environment.Since the renovation and opening-up, the Vietnam has obtained many achievements and experience during the process of ethnic policy implementation. Shortcomings and lessons also existed. This paper mainly focused on the achievements, experience, and lessons of Vietnam’s ethic policies concerning economy, culture, education, medical treatment, health, minority cadres and ethnic Chinese. Based on the narrative and summarization, it also compared the situation of Vietnam to China in such aspects as basic national conditions, ethnic situation, political system, reform background, causes of ethnic issue, policy category, as well as the overall development, democratic awareness, vote system, and basic modes of ethnic issueresolving. Lastly, it summarized the experience and measures of the Vietnamese government in resolving ethnic issues and implementing ethnic policies that could be used for reference for Chinese authorities to management ethnic affairs.