Dong Jie: Correcting the Grasp of the "Four Pairs of Relationships" to Forge a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation

Forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation is a long-term strategy and a fundamental measure proposed by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with a view toward realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Study Reader for General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Exposition on Strengthening and Improving Ethnic Work, published in December 2024, points out that forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation must be the main thread of the Party’s ethnic work in the New Era and the main thread of all work in ethnic areas. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, one must correctly grasp the relationship between commonality and difference, the relationship between the consciousness of the Chinese nation as a community and the consciousness of individual ethnic groups, the relationship between Chinese culture and the cultures of individual ethnic groups, and the relationship between the material and the spiritual. Correctly grasping these "four pairs of relations" is both a very important theoretical issue and an extremely urgent practical work issue. It helps Party members and cadres correct and clarify certain erroneous concepts and vague understandings, allowing them to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation with greater historical confidence and historical initiative, thereby promoting the high-quality development of the Party’s ethnic work in the New Era.

I.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "For over a hundred years, we have persisted in combining Marxist ethnic theory with the concrete realities of China's ethnic issues and with fine traditional Chinese culture, creatively blazing a correct path for solving ethnic issues with Chinese characteristics." The proposal of the "four pairs of relations" points the way for advancing the construction of the Chinese nation as a community and provides the epistemology and methodology for strengthening and improving the Party's ethnic work in the New Era.

It is a valuable experience in grasping ethnic issues and doing ethnic work well. The ethnic issue is part of the general issue of social development. Based on the fact that colonialism led to increasingly prominent national oppression and exploitation, and based on the needs of the proletarian revolutionary struggle, Marx and Engels proposed the basic principles of ethnic equality and ethnic unity. Since the day of its founding, our Party has attached great importance to ethnic issues and ethnic work, correctly handling ethnic relations. After the founding of New China, the Party established ethnic theories, guidelines, and policies with ethnic equality, ethnic unity, regional ethnic autonomy, and the common prosperity of all ethnic groups as the main content. All ethnic groups achieved equality, unity, and progress in a true sense under the socialist system. During the new period of reform and opening up, our Party persisted in the common struggle and common prosperous development of all ethnic groups, taking a series of major measures to support the economic and social development of ethnic areas, achieving remarkable success. Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has emphasized concepts such as the "big family of the Chinese nation," the "community of the Chinese nation," "forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation," and "advancing the construction of the Chinese nation as a community." It has implemented the Party’s ethnic theory and policy by both following the same lineage and advancing with the times, accumulating valuable experience in grasping ethnic issues and doing ethnic work well. It has further expanded the correct path for solving ethnic issues with Chinese characteristics and formed General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important exposition on strengthening and improving ethnic work. In his important speech at the 2021 Central Conference on Ethnic Affairs, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the innovative development of the Party’s ethnic work means persisting in what is correct, adjusting what is outdated, and better protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the masses of all ethnic groups. The proposal of the "four pairs of relations" scientifically and systematically clarifies how to handle ethnic relations in work practice and how to comprehensively improve the level of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, possessing strong guidance and pertinence.

It is a theoretical innovation in the construction of the Chinese nation as a community. All ethnic groups in our country are a community with a shared future that shares weal and woe ^[1]. All ethnic groups jointly opened up the vast territory of the motherland, jointly created the unified multi-ethnic state, jointly wrote the glorious history of China, jointly created the splendid Chinese culture, and jointly nurtured the great national spirit. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The formation and development of the Chinese nation as a community is the aspiration of the people, the trend of the times, and a historical necessity." Since the 18th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has scrutinized the changes of past and present, observed the trends of the era, and profoundly summarized and grasped the historical position of the Party’s ethnic work in the New Era along with its new situations and characteristics. On the basis of inheriting our Party’s ethnic theories and policies, he creatively proposed the major original thesis of "forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation," marking that our Party's understanding and grasping of ethnic issues has reached a new realm. The proposal of the "four pairs of relations" accurately grasps our country’s basic national conditions and historical traditions, profoundly reveals the laws of ethnic unity and progress in China, and represents a major exploration and innovation regarding ethnic theory and ethnic work. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourse on the "four pairs of relations" addresses both epistemology and methodology; it speaks to both the "two-point theory" and the "priority theory" ^[2]; and it addresses both the universality and the particularity of contradictions. It resolves the questions of "how to view" and "what to do" regarding forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation in a dialectically unified manner.

It is a practical necessity for preventing and defusing risks and hidden dangers in the ethnic field. Forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation is an inevitable requirement for safeguarding the fundamental interests of all ethnic groups, for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, for consolidating and developing socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance, and harmony, and for the Party’s ethnic work to break new ground. However, economic and social development does not automatically bring about ethnic unity, nor does it automatically bring about a sense of community for the Chinese nation. At the same time, it must be noted that some Western countries strengthen ideological infiltration through channels such as the Internet, intensifying various forms of containment, suppression, and activities of infiltration, subversion, and sabotage against our country. The risk of international anti-China forces interfering with and sabotaging our country’s ethnic unity must not be underestimated. To comprehensively grasp the world’s profound changes unseen in a century and the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we must ensure that the correct views of the state, history, nation, culture, and religion take deeper root in the hearts of the people, continuously strengthening the state consciousness, citizen consciousness, and rule-of-law consciousness of the masses of all ethnic groups, and continuously consolidating the ideological foundation for the sense of community for the Chinese nation. We must correctly grasp the "four pairs of relations," persist in bottom-line thinking, strengthen risk awareness, timely resolve various problems and hidden dangers, and continuously consolidate and develop the great unity of all ethnic groups, the great unity of the people of the whole country, and the great unity of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, making the community of the Chinese nation unbreakable.

II.

Correctly grasping the "four pairs of relations" is the concrete manifestation of Marxist epistemology and dialectical materialism in the aspect of ethnic unity and progress. Accurately understanding the rich connotation of the "four pairs of relations" is the key to forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.

Correctly grasp the relationship between commonality and difference, and forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation in the process of advancing its construction as a community. Through long-term interaction, exchange, and blending ^[3], all ethnic groups in our country have accumulated common historical memories, interests, and destinies, shared cultural customs and spiritual concepts, and shared political values and social systems. At the same time, diverse geographical and human environments have shaped the pluralistic characteristics of various ethnic groups in terms of customs, culture, and art. Enhancing commonality means strengthening people’s identification with the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as their state consciousness, citizen consciousness, and rule-of-law consciousness. Respecting difference means paying attention to the protection and inheritance of the diet, clothing, customs, culture, art, and architectural styles of various ethnic groups. In the process of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, we must unequivocally oppose and resist the weakening and endangering of commonality in the name of respecting difference and tolerating diversity. We must respect and tolerate difference on the basis of enhancing commonality; we must never solidify or strengthen the backward factors therein that affect ethnic progress. We should actively promote extensive interaction, comprehensive exchange, and deep blending among all ethnic groups, and promote their unity in ideals, beliefs, emotions, and culture. We must watch out for and help each other ^[4], maintain deep brotherly ties, and promote the continuous consolidation, development, and growth of the Chinese nation as a community.

Correctly grasp the relationship between the sense of community for the Chinese nation and the consciousness of individual ethnic groups, and forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation while nurturing a correct view of the history of the Chinese nation. Ethnic consciousness primarily refers to the identification with and belonging to one's own ethnic identity. The sense of community for the Chinese nation is the product of long-term interaction, exchange, blending, common struggle, and common prosperous development in history. It is the product of all ethnic groups sharing honor and disgrace, sharing weal and woe, and showing total devotion to each other ^[5] in the process of jointly resisting foreign aggression and facing national crises since modern times. Especially under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, through a century-long history of struggle, the sense of community for the Chinese nation has been strengthened as never before, and the Chinese nation has achieved the great transition from being a "nation-in-itself" to a "nation-for-itself" ^[6]. In forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation through the nurturing of a correct view of history, we must always maintain a clear understanding that the interests of the Chinese nation and the interests of individual ethnic groups are essentially completely consistent—they are in a relationship where "if one prospers, all prosper; if one suffers, all suffer." No ethnic group can stand apart from the Chinese nation or Chinese culture. All ethnic groups must be guided to always put the interests of the Chinese nation first and to take the safeguarding of national unity and ethnic solidarity as the premise and foundation for realizing their own interests, realizing the specific interests of individual ethnic groups in the process of successfully realizing the overall interests of the Chinese nation as a community.

Correctly grasp the relationship between Chinese culture and the cultures of individual ethnic groups, and forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation while building a shared spiritual home for the Chinese nation. Chinese culture is jointly created, inherited, and promoted by all ethnic groups. it is formed through the continuous mutual learning and integration of various ethnic cultures and is the culmination of the fine cultures of all ethnic groups. At the same time, while maintaining their respective regional and ethnic characteristics, the cultures of various ethnic groups shine together, constituting the diverse parts of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is the trunk, and the cultures of individual ethnic groups are the branches and leaves; only when the roots are deep and the trunk is strong can the branches and leaves flourish. In forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation while building a shared spiritual home, we must persist in carrying out the inheritance, protection, and innovation of various ethnic cultures under the premise of strengthening identification with Chinese culture. We must establish and highlight the Chinese cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation that are shared by all ethnic groups. We should promote the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, promote the prosperity and development of advanced socialist culture, and guide the masses of all ethnic groups to move toward modernization in their ideas, spiritual interests, and lifestyles.

Correctly grasp the relationship between the material and the spiritual, and forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation in the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization. Material power "manages the stomach," while spiritual power "manages the mind." Material power and spiritual power are not mutually replaceable. Material progress can promote spiritual elevation, and spiritual elevation can be transformed into material power. The common modernization of all ethnic groups is not a single issue of economic development; nor is forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation a purely spiritual issue. We must profoundly recognize that development is the master key to solving various problems in ethnic areas, while at the same time strengthening the construction of spiritual civilization. In forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, we must see that Chinese-path modernization is a modernization in which material and spiritual civilizations are coordinated. We must solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, continuously thicken the material foundation of modernization, and consolidate the material conditions for the people’s happy life. At the same time, we must vigorously develop advanced socialist culture, strengthen education in ideals and beliefs, inherit Chinese civilization, and promote the comprehensive abundance of material things and the comprehensive development of people. We must vest all reform and development with the significance of manifesting a sense of community for the Chinese nation, with the significance of safeguarding unity and opposing separatism, and with the significance of improving people’s livelihoods and coalescing the hearts of the people.

III.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation is the "guiding principle" ^[7] of the Party’s ethnic work in the New Era, and all work must focus on this. Correctly grasping the "four pairs of relations" provides the compliance and guidance for forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and we must do a good job of implementation in combination with reality.

Strengthen the guidance of mainstream values. The guidance of mainstream values is the basic compliance for correctly grasping the "four pairs of relations" in forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation in practice. The "four pairs of relations" are an integrated whole and none should be neglected. Among them, the relationship between commonality and difference plays a leading role for the other relations. We must correctly grasp that commonality among ethnic groups is primary, while difference is secondary. "Sameness" is dominant; it is the direction, the premise, and the fundamental. "Difference" is subordinate; it is the foundation, the element, and the driving force, and its existence must be premised on not weakening or endangering commonality. We must take the core socialist values as the guide, incorporate the correct handling of the "four pairs of relations" into the entire process of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and construct an expression system for Chinese cultural characteristics, the spirit of the Chinese nation, and China’s national image. We must improve systems and mechanisms to enhance the leading power of socialist core values in the "four pairs of relations" of forging a sense of community. We must spread the story of the Chinese nation as a community using new concepts, categories, and expressions of openness and integration, vigorously promote the sense of community for the Chinese nation, and firmly grasp the leadership, initiative, and right to speak in forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.

Always uphold the principle of putting the people first. The character of the people is the essential attribute of Marxism. Our Party comes from the people, is rooted in the people, and serves the people. Adhering to the principle of putting the people first has always been a red thread ^[8] running through the century-long history of our Party's struggle. The people of all ethnic groups are the constant source of wisdom, thought, and spirit for forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation. Only by putting the people first can we ensure the role of the people as the subjects of power, value, and practice, thereby forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation while promoting socialist ethnic relations characterized by equality, unity, mutual assistance, and harmony. The essence of socialist democratic politics lies in the people being masters of the country ^[9]. We must uphold the legal authority that protects the rights of all ethnic groups and promote the construction of whole-process people's democracy, forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation by ensuring that all ethnic groups enjoy extensive rights. We must focus on the economic development of all ethnic groups, placing the acceleration of development for ethnic minorities and ethnic areas in a more prominent position within the overall framework of national reform and development. We must better meet the people's new expectations for a better life through higher-quality modernization achievements, forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation through common prosperity and development. We must earnestly safeguard the immediate and long-term interests of the masses, frequently measuring ourselves against the yardstick of whether the masses are satisfied or not, and taking whether the people support, approve, are happy with, and agree ^[10] as the fundamental standard for measuring the success or failure of all work. In doing so, we forge the sense of community for the Chinese nation by enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security ^[11] among the masses of all ethnic groups.

Continuously promote integration and mutual embedding. All ethnic groups share integrated lineages, identical beliefs, interconnected cultures, economic interdependence, and close emotional ties. The people of all ethnic groups share a common home, a common identity, a common name, and a common dream. This constitutes the important foundation for the integration and mutual embedding of all ethnic groups in the New Era and on the new journey. Promoting the integration and mutual embedding of all ethnic groups is an important path for correctly grasping the "four pairs of relations" ^[12] in the practice of forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation; it is also an inevitable trend of social and historical development. We must deeply excavate and effectively utilize historical facts, archaeological artifacts, and cultural relics of contact, exchange, and integration ^[13] among various ethnic groups, as well as the advanced deeds and typical examples of the masses of all ethnic groups, to provide a vivid and fresh interpretation of forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation. For example, the Silk Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road ^[14], which originated in China and connected the world, served not only as bridges for cultural exchange and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations, but also as mediums for the contact, exchange, and integration of China's various ethnic groups. They are both the best witnesses to thousands of years of history of ethnic exchange and fusion, and important channels for the sprouting, formation, and development of the sense of community for the Chinese nation. We must improve policy measures and institutional mechanisms, actively creating the social structures and conditions for all ethnic groups to live, study, build, share, work, and enjoy together. We should enhance the level of ethnic work in both urban and rural areas, orderly promote the mobile co-residence of populations of all ethnic groups, and encourage all ethnic groups to gradually achieve all-round embedding in spatial, cultural, economic, social, and psychological dimensions, thereby constructing a mutually-embedded social structure and community environment. We must unswervingly promote the standard spoken and written national language ^[15], consolidate the foundation for contact, exchange, and integration, and promote the Chinese nation's movement toward a community with a shared future characterized by stronger inclusivity and greater cohesion.