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| Tuesday, 1 March 2005 |
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China's regional autonomy ensures equality for all ethnic groups BEIJING, Monday (Xinhua) - The system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities ensures that all ethnic groups in China enjoy equality, said Wu Shimin, deputy director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Monday here at a press conference. Ethnic minorities with a population of more than 10 million or less than 10,000 have their own autonomous areas according to law, said Wu. In addition, he said, by the end of 2003 China has established 1,173 ethnic townships in areas equivalent to townships where ethnic minorities live in compact communities. Statistics show that by the end of 2003, China had established 155 ethnic autonomous areas. Of these, five are autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties (banners). According to the fifth national census conducted in 2000, of the 55 ethnic minorities, 44 have their own ethnic autonomous areas. The population of ethnic minorities practicing regional autonomy accounts for 71 percent of the total population of ethnic minorities, and the area where such regional autonomy is practiced accounts for 64 percent of the entire territory of China. Meanwile China has increasingly strengthened its assistance to impoverished ethnic minority areas, says a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council. According to the white paper titled Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, since the mid-1980s, when the Chinese government launched its large-scale poverty-alleviation drive in an organized and programmed way, ethnic minorities and areas they live have always been key targets of governmental aid. Among the 331 impoverished counties designated as key recipients of state aid in 1986, 141 are in ethnic autonomous areas, accounting for 42.6 percent of the total. China has also increased input into social services in ethnic autonomous areas to raise the level of medical care for the people and promoted the development of radio,film and TV services in those areas, says the white paper According to the white paper 2003, the central government appropriated special funds totaling 1.37 billion yuan (165 millionUS dollars) for health services in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet autonomous regions, which covered such aspects as public health, basic rural health facilities, specialized hospitals, rural cooperative medical services and control of serious diseases. In 1998, the Chinese government launched a project to give every village access to radio and TV broadcasts, providing special-purpose subsidies to key counties for national poverty-alleviationand development in the central and western regions, which greatly promoted the development of radio, film and TV services in ethnic minority areas. Meanwhile with the development of the national economy and the growth in financial revenue, governments at all levels in China have gradually increased transfer payments from the exchequer to ethnic autonomous areas, says the white paper. |
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