Minority Development

The Chinese Government issued the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for Ethnic Minorities Affairs in late March, 2007, the first of its kind since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

According to the plan, China's ethnic minority areas will see much progress by 2010: public infrastructure and the ecological environment will be improved, poverty levels will be eased and the standard of living will be raised.

"The plan aims to provide equal basic public services to all, starting by solving the conspicuous problems and difficulties of ethnic minorities and autonomous regions," according to Dondrub Wangben, Vice Minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

Lagging behind

The Chinese Government has attached great importance to ethnic minority affairs, and energetically supports work in this regard, said the vice minister. However, due to historical, natural and social reasons, economic and social development have not been well coordinated in many ethnic minority areas and the gap between rural and urban regions as well as between ethnic groups remains large and is a hindrance to building a harmonious society, he said.

China is a unified multi-ethnic country with 56 ethnic groups (for more information, see P.27). More than 100 million people, or 8.4 percent of the country's total population are from ethnic minorities. Ethnic autonomous regions cover an area of over 6 million square km, making up 63.7 percent of China's territory.

Of the nation's 55 ethnic minority groups, 50 are situated in the western part of the country where economic development has progressed slowly, accounting for 75 percent of the total minority population.

According to Dondrub, living conditions in some ethnic minority areas are critically low, with poor infrastructure, a lack of social services and few ways for people to increase their income. Efforts to alleviate poverty have largely proved unfruitful as a result of natural disasters, heavy medical and educational costs.

In 2005, 11.7 million people from ethnic minorities were living in absolute poverty, comprising 50 percent of the total poverty population. The poverty rate among ethnic minorities stood at 6.9 percent, 4.4 percentage points higher than the national average.

According to statistics from the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, there are 22 small-population minorities, referring to those with a population below 100,000, numbering around 630,000 people.

Most of the small-population ethnic minorities live in the remote mountain areas of west China. Many of the 640 administrative villages inhabited by small-population ethnic minorities do not have electricity, drinking water, health clinics, primary schools or telephones. The level of illiteracy in these communities stands at 42 percent and in nine minority groups even exceeds 50 percent.

No discrimination

To carry out its ethnic equality policy, in 1953 the Chinese Government started a large-scale program to identify all of the country's ethnic peoples. A total of 55 ethnic minorities were identified, making each ethnic minority an equal member of China's family of peoples for the first time in history.

China's ethnic groups are spread across the nation and live in a diverse range of communities. In some cases minority peoples can be found living in concentrated communities in areas inhabited mainly by the Han people, while in other cases this situation is reversed. China's ethnic minorities, though small in numbers, are scattered over vast areas, and live in every province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government.

To safeguard equality among ethnic groups and enhance unity, the Constitution contains provisions on the need to combat large ethnic group chauvinism, either Han chauvinism, or local ethnic chauvinism.

China has also joined international conventions including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and has conscientiously performed the duties prescribed in these conventions and made unremitting efforts together with the international community to realize ethnic equality and oppose racial segregation and ethnic oppression and discrimination in all countries of the world.

In 2005, 11.7 million people from ethnic minorities were living in absolute poverty. (Image: Beijing Review)In China, any words or acts aimed at inciting hostility and discrimination against any ethnic group and sabotaging equality and unity among peoples are regarded as violating the law.

Any ethnic minority subjected to discrimination, oppression or insults, has the right to complain to judicial institutions at any level, which are bound by duty to handle the complaint.

In China, ethnic minorities and the Han people participate as equals in the management of affairs of central and local governments at all levels, and the right of ethnic minority groups to take part in the management of state affairs is guaranteed. Elections to the National People's Congress (NPC)-the highest organ of state power-fully reflect respect for the rights of ethnic minorities.

From the first NPC, held in 1954, to the present day, ethnic minorities have enjoyed over-representation among deputies.

Practicing ethnic regional autonomy in areas where people of ethnic minorities live in compact communities is a major political aim of China and a basic policy of the Chinese Government.

Regional autonomy for ethnic minorities means that under the unified leadership of the state, regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities; in these areas organs of self-government are established for the exercise of autonomy and for people of ethnic minorities to become masters of their own region and manage the internal affairs themselves.

Help continues

In accordance with the actual conditions in ethnic minority areas, the state has worked out and adopted a series of policies and measures to assist these areas in developing their economies, as well as mobilized and organized the developed areas where Han people live to support them.

The 11th Five-Year Plan for Ethnic Minorities Affairs set out six main targets as well as 11 main tasks and 11 key projects, involving every aspect of the development of minority groups.

In August 2005, the State Council discussed and adopted the development plan (2005-10) for the aid of ethnic minorities with small populations. Substantial measures were announced in the plan, including improving the infrastructure for these ethnic minorities, optimizing their economic structure, promoting science and technology and training more qualified professionals.

The 11th Five-Year Plan for Ethnic Minorities Affairs also addressed a lack of information, which is a big obstacle to the development of remote ethnic minority dominated areas.

According to Lou Qinjian, Vice Minister of Information Industry, by the end of 2005 ethnic minority areas had had 30.84 million fixed phone users, 37.17 million mobile communications subscribers and 5.31 million Internet users, with the popularization rate of fixed telephone and mobile phone users reaching 18 percent and 22 percent respectively.