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Content: On the other hand,
        China's government is a highly centralized one that recognizes no
        legitimate limits to its authority, and minority peoples in far western
        Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region, for example, are considered Chinese
        citizens just as much as Han farmers on the outskirts of Beijingare. Official attitudes toward minority peoples are inconsistent, if not
        contradictory. Since 1949 policies toward minorities have fluctuated
        between tolerance and coercive attempts to impose Han standards. Tolerant periods have been marked by subsidized material benefits
        intended to win loyalty, while coercive periods such as the Cultural
        Revolution have attempted to eradicate "superstition" and to
        overthrow insufficiently radical or insufficiently nationalistic local
        leaders. What has not varied has been the assumption that it is the central
        government that decides what is best for minority peoples and that
        national citizenship takes precedence over ethnic identity. In fact,
        minority nationality is a legal status in China. The government reserves
        for itself the right to determine whether or not a group is a minority
        nationality, and the list has been revised several times since the
        1950s. In the mid-1980s the state recognized 55 minority nationalities,
        some with as few as 1,1000 members. Minority nationalities are
        guaranteed special representation in the National People's Congress and
        the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Areas where
        minorities form the majority of the population may be designated
        "autonomous" counties, prefectures, or regions, subject to the
        authority of the central government in Beijing rather than to provincial
        or subprovincial administrations.