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Related: Full text of White Paper "Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China"
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- China published a white paper on Monday saying that the country's regional autonomy system for ethnic minorities adopted half a century ago has been in conformity with the country's "peculiar situation" and proven to be in the common interests of all ethnic groups.
The 12,000-word document entitled Regional Autonomy
for Ethnic Minorities in China was issued by the Information Office of the State
Council.
The system "is critical to enhancing the relationship
of equality, unity and mutual assistance among different ethnic groups, to
upholding national unification, and to accelerating thedevelopment of places
where regional autonomy is practiced and promoting their progress," the white
paper says.
"This major historical decision (to pursue the
regional autonomy system) was made out of consideration for the particular
situation of China," the white paper says.
By the end of 2003, China had established 155 ethnic
autonomousareas, which cover 64 percent of the country's entire territory.
"Before the founding of New China, the ethnic
minority areas suffered from low productivity, and underdeveloped economy,
society and culture," the white paper says. Most of their populations were
illiterate, and they suffered epidemics of such contagious diseases as plague,
smallpox and malaria. "Some were onthe verge of extinction," it says.
As a result of over half a century's efforts, in the
ethnic autonomous areas the people's living conditions and environments have
conspicuously improved, people there now "share the achievements of development
brought about by the modernization construction of the country," the document
says.
In 2003, the GDP of China's ethnic autonomous areas
reached 1,038.1 billion yuan (125 billion US dollars), exceeding 1,000 billion
yuan for the first time. The per-capita net income of rural residents in ethnic
autonomous areas was 1,895 yuan, 2.31 times that in 1994.
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