1950年代，北京的新政權以「民族識別」和「民族區域自治」兩項新政策，取代了清末和民國針對邊疆少數民族地區推行的行省化政策。本文考察中共在建立五個省級民族自治區的同時，調整邊疆行政區劃的過程，指出其政策實未改變清朝與中華民國政府的國家整合目標，且在執行方式上，汲取了中國歷朝和蘇聯強化中央集權、防杜少數民族分離的經驗。在新疆，中共以「自下而上，廣封眾建」的方式，操作各級民族自治地方的行政建置、轄境劃分事務，讓維吾爾人的政治資源受到其他少數民族的稀釋與制衡。而在其他四個自治區，中共也因時因地制宜，或將漢人聚居區劃入內蒙古，使蒙古人成為少數；或壓縮藏族與回族自治的地理空間；或整合、籠絡非漢民族中人數最多又溫馴的廣西僮族，擴大其自治區域範圍，造成僮族與嶺南漢人地方主義傳統相互牽制的局面。本文認為，中共推行民族區域自治制度的手法靈活、細膩而有原則，最終不止成功地在法律上將非漢民族地區事務明確定位為主權國家內政，同時也將該制度中潛在的離心因子有效侷限在可控制範圍內，真正實現了中央政府對這些地區直接有效的政治統治和行政管轄。

In the 1950s, the Communist regime’s “Regional National Autonomy” policy replaced the earlier “centralization” policies of the Qing and the Republic of China in regard to frontier minority areas. In a fashion similar to the Soviet Union’s titular nations, a number of areas associated with one or more ethnic minorities were designated as autonomous within the People’s Republic of China. These areas were recognized in the PRC’s constitution and nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other administrative divisions. However, this act did not mean that the Beijing government in fact changed earlier national goal of integration; on the contrary, the PRC inherited the experiences of centralization and anti-separatism from previous Chinese regimes as well as the Soviet Union, and through administrative techniques was able to keep latent separatism under control. 　　In Xinjiang, the PRC operated a policy of “from the bottom up and reestablishing feudal lords to lessen their (individual) strengths.” Beijing, established numerous non-Uyghur autonomous regions, from ethnic townships and autonomous counties to autonomous prefectures, which diluted and diverted the Uyghurs’ political resources. In the four other provincial-level autonomous regions—Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet—autonomous ethnic groups either became minorities in their own Autonomous Regions, or else found their geographical space diminished.