ABSTRACT
From the early years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, the immediate aim of educational policy was to create national unity after a half-century of division and to instil a sense of loyalty among minority populations. The ultimate goal of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) educational policy for minority peoples has been to integrate all ethnic groups into a single and unified socialist state. Both of these remain the objectives of minority education today, particularly. The major vehicles for preparing minority cadres was the Central Institute for Nationalities, which opened in Beijing in 1950, and regional institutes that were founded subsequently. In the aftermath of the Hundred Flowers campaign, minority cadres who dared to criticize the Communist government's policy on minorities were judged guilty of 'local nationalism' and removed from their posts. In addition to these problems, a fundamental issue facing the CCP in Xinjiang, as in other minority regions, was the choice of a language of instruction.
