PRC likes doing this X autonomous region/prefecture thing for their minorities and makes conscious effort to preserve their language and culture. Maybe that could be construed as a union of separate nations?
I think that's on the level of like saying that the different native reservations in the USA would become separate states. Except not really because the Autonomous regions actually have significantly more autonomy than the reservations do.
Not usually. The more autonomous a nation(I'll say for simplicity's sake) is to operate within a state while benefiting from the state, the less likely it is to want to separate. There are a lot of costs associated with being a state, so the advantages of separation are very small compared to the disadvantages.
PRC likes doing this X autonomous region/prefecture thing for their minorities and makes conscious effort to preserve their language and culture. Maybe that could be construed as a union of separate nations?
I think that's on the level of like saying that the different native reservations in the USA would become separate states. Except not really because the Autonomous regions actually have significantly more autonomy than the reservations do.
Shouldn't that encourage separatism?
Not usually. The more autonomous a nation(I'll say for simplicity's sake) is to operate within a state while benefiting from the state, the less likely it is to want to separate. There are a lot of costs associated with being a state, so the advantages of separation are very small compared to the disadvantages.