ABSTRACT
Under Mao Zedong, policy toward ethnic minorities alternated between tolerant acceptance of "national minorities special characteristics" and strong pressure for complete assimilation. The former was most prominent from 1949 to 1957; from 1960 through 1965; and from 1971 until Mao's death in 1976. The latter was principally in evidence during the intervening years of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
