In China, the word minzu (Chinese: 民族; pinyin: mínzú) means a community that inherits culture (文化) or consanguinity (血缘). Depending on the context, the word has various meanings, such as "nation", "ethnicity", and "race". In modern Chinese languages, minzu has a stronger cultural meaning than racial meaning.

Minzu-based nationalism is associated with nationalism in Northeast Asia and Vietnam, usually in the form of cultural or ethnic nationalism, in contrast to state nationalism. Minzu-based nationalism in China and Taiwan is close to multi-ethnic nationalism.

In Chinese, the term minzu has several meanings; it can be confused with concepts such as "zhǒngzú" (种族, lit. "race"), "guózú" (国族, lit. "nation"), "zúqún" (族群, lit. "ethnic group"). For example, 民族主义 (pinyin: mínzú zhǔyì, lit. "minzu-ism") means "nationalism", but 民族学 (pinyin: mínzú xué, lit. "minzu-study") means "ethnology".

The term "minzu" is found in Xiao Zixian's book 《南齐书·高逸传》 during the Liang dynasty ("今诸华士女, 民族弗革"), and in the book 《太白阴经》 during the Tang dynasty ("愚人得之, 以倾宗社, 灭民族"). However, these terms are closer to the meaning of "people" (民众) than they are to today.

Minzu is a loanword from Japanese. During the Meji period, Japanese translators rendered "nation", "ethnic group", and "Volk" into minzoku (Japanese: 民族) when translating European books, which was introduced to China.

Before the 1911 Revolution, the members of the Chinese Revolutionary Party were hostile to the Qing dynasty ("Anti-Qing sentiment") and tried to build a nation-state around the Han Chinese; at this time the concept of Zhonghua minzu (中华民族 / 中華民族, zhōnghuá mínzú, lit. "Chinese nation") was about the same meaning with Han minzu (汉民族 / 漢民族, hàn mínzú, lit. "Han nation") or Hanzu (汉族 / 漢族, hànzú, "Han ethnic group").

After the 1911 Revolution, the concept of "Five Races Under One Union" was introduced, and later Zhonghua minzu united various ethnic groups in China. Today, Zhonghua minzu is concept is related to multi-ethnic nationalism, and therefore distinct from Han minzu or Hanzu.

民族 is not a word spoken only in China and Japan, and can be used in countries throughout Chinese cultural sphere where Chinese characters are spoken. The "dân tộc" in the Vietnamese language, and "민족" in the Korean language are 民族 and lexical cognates.