The Korea Local Administration Review

China is a multi-cultural nation, namely being made up of 55 ethnic minorities. Ethnic diversity creates many challenges for unifying a nation. China adopted a regional ethnic autonomy institution. The REAI entitles autonomy rights to the 55 ethnic minorities excluding the Han ethnic. It aims at two political goals- solving ethnic problems and unifying a nation. The problem is that the current regional ethnic autonomy system based on multi-culturalism has an aspect to weaken national identities such as a citizen(公民), Chinese nation by strengthening each identities of ethnic minorities.
This manuscript suggests that the local administration system based on integrationism is a better alternative to resolve the problem of regional ethnic autonomy system. The local administration system includes the removal of ethnic status code from identification cards, the use of China’s official Putonghua(普通話) language, and the household-registration system. Current ethnic policy has a critical role to narrow the ethnic gap among 55 ethnic minorities, but in the long run the local administration system is more relative for solving ethnic problems and unifying a nation.

□ Keywords:the regional ethnic autonomy system, the ethnic minorities, multi-culturalism, unifying a nation, ethnic policy