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After the 2009 Ürümqi Riot, heavy measures to maintain stability have dominated China's ethnic policy; the authority has also provided wide-range social welfare for acquiring loyalty. In September 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out his ethnic policy, including insistence on the Ethnic Regional Autonomy, a multi-culturalist outlook, equal access to public services, stronger local governance, rule of law and nurturing of new ethnic elites. Many follow-up policies have been publicised, but challenges remain.

Following significant interethnic violence beginning in 2008, Chinese intellectuals and policymakers are now engaged in unprecedented debate over the future direction of their country's ethnic policies. This study attempts to gauge current Chinese opinion on this once-secretive and still highly sensitive area of national policy. Domestic Chinese opinion on ethnic policies over the last five years is reviewed and implications for future policies under the new leadership of CPC Secretary General Xi Jinping are explored. Careful review of a wide spectrum of contemporary Chinese commentary identifies an emerging consensus for ethnic-policy reform. Leading public intellectuals, as well as some party officials, now openly call for new measures strengthening national integration at the expense of minority rights and autonomy. These reformers argue that divisive ethnic policies adopted from the former USSR must be replaced by those supporting an ethnic "melting pot" concept. Despite this important shift in opinion, such radical policy changes as ending regional ethnic autonomy or minority preferences are unlikely over the short-to-medium term. Small-yet-significant adjustments in rhetoric and policy emphasis are, however, expected as the party-state attempts to strengthen interethnic cohesiveness as a part of its larger agenda of stability maintenance

The role of policy as a cause & effect within political systems is presented through examination of ethnic policy changes in Malaysia. National culture & beliefs, cross-national, international diffusion, & cultural determinism theories of policy change are considered. Examination of the political history of Malaysian ethnic issues from the first national elections in 1955 to the present reveals three tenets of policy formation: (1) interethnic negotiation; (2) avoidance of problem issues; & (3) focus on a new economic policy (NEP) abolishing ethnic division of labor. Based on Malaysian cultural beliefs in redistributive equity & political stability, the NEP emphasizes that, in aiding Malays, expropriation of assets belonging to non-Malays should be avoided; it also takes into account the Malays' lack of sophistication in economic practices. The impact of these policy directions in Malaysia is discussed. 65 References. D. Generoli

Discusses policy shifts toward tolerance, 1983-1993, when Ozal served as prime minister & then president of Turkey. Kemalist ethnic policy was of assimilation & nationalism with the outlawing of all evidence of ethnic difference inside Turkey & the denying of any relationship with Turkish groups in foreign countries. Kemal Ataturk had repressed the Kurds by banning their language, both written & spoken, & all Kurdish educational activities. Despite violations, Ozal, improved Turkey's human rights record, & he accepted ethnic groups within Turkey & supported rapprochement with Turks in Iraq, Bulgaria, Caucasus, & Central Asia. As the post-Ozal government returns to Kemalist policies, it would be well for them to recognize that the repression of that era did not solve the Kurdish problem. L. A. Hoffman