8 Nov 91
FE/1224 C1/18
protected. The Constitution stipulates that "all the minority nationalities are entitled to appropriate representation" in the National People's Congress (NPC), the highest organ of state power. The proportion of deputies elected by the minority nationalities to the NPC in the total number of NPC deputies is always about twice as large as the proportion of members of the minority nationalities in the country's total population. Of the deputies to the seventh national people's congress, 455 or 15% come from minority nationalities. And even the Loba, Hezhe and Monba nationalities, with only several thousand people, are represented in the NPC.
The local people's congress is the local organ of state power. As prescribed in China's Electoral Law, in areas where the people of minority nationalities live in compact communities, each minority nationality of a compact community should have its own deputies to the local people's
congress. The law also has stipulations for special consideration to be given to the deputies from each minority nationality in the election. According to these stipulations, if the total population of a minority nationality in a region where people of minority nationalities live in compact communities is less than 15% of the total population of the region, the population that each deputy of the minority nationality represents can be less than the population that each deputy to the local people's congress represents.
The Chinese people of all nationalities are eligible to hold any posts in the state organ and government departments. In this respect, there is also no discrimination against the minority nationalities. For instance, not a few members of minority nationalities are holding or once held such high- ranking state posts as vice-president of the state, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, vice-premier of the State Council, president of the Supreme People's Court, and vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The Law on Regional National Autonomy prescribes that citizens of the minority nationality that exercises regional national autonomy should serve as director or deputy-director of the standing committee of the people's congress of the autonomous region; and the chairman of the regional autonomous government and head of the administration of the autonomous prefecture and the autonomous county should be citizens of the nationality that exercises self-government. The staff and officials of the people's governments of the autonomous regions, and of the departments affiliated to them, should include members of the nationality that exercises regional national autonomy and members of other minority nationalities.
Statistics show that in 1989 the number of minority officials made up 17.27% of the total number of directors and deputy- directors of the standing committees of the people's congresses of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. The number of minority officials made up 12.66% of the governors or vice-governors of provinces, mayors or deputy-mayors of municipalities, and chairmen or vice-chairmen of autonomous regions. Of the directors or deparv-airectors of the standing committees of the people's congresses at levels of city, prefecture and autonomous prefecture, minority officials reached 14.20%. The
SWB
number of minority officials among mayors or deputy-mayors, commissioners and directors of prefectures took up 11.9%. Of the directors or deputy-directors of the standing committees of the people's congresses at the county level, minority officials totalled 17.3%. Minority officials made up 15.16% of county magistrates. All these proportions surpass 8% which is the proportion covered by the population of the minority nationalities in the total population of the country.
The state always pays close attention to training cadres from among people of minority nationalities. In recent years, the number of minority nationality cadres has gone up at a rate of more than 10,000 people annually. Now there are 37,000 Tibetan cadres throughout Tibet, making up 66.6% of the total number of cadres; this breaks down to about 72% at autonomous-region level and 61.2% at county level. The number of Mongolian cadres accounted for 50% of the total number of cadres in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Rights of the national autonomous regions to economic, cultural and social development are given special consideration. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the economic, cultural and social development in minority areas was extremely backward. At that time, some areas were still at the stage of primitive clan communes, with people practising slash-and-burn cultivation. The minority nationalities lived in dire poverty. The average life-expectancy was only 30 years, and epidemic diseases were rampant, with the result that the population decreased year after year.
After the founding of new China, the people's government actively helped the minority nationalities develop their economy and culture in an effort to change their outdated mode of production. This enabled them to leap over several historical stages of social development. Now most of the minority nationalities have solved the problem of food and clothing, and the total population of the minority nationalities increased from 35m in 1953 to 91.20m in 1990. The growth rate of the population of minority nationalities is faster than that of the Hans. The average life-expectancy of the minority nationalities is over 60, an increase of more than 30 years over the past.
In order to help minority nationalities develop their economies, the state has carried out economic construction on a large scale in minority areas. In some of these areas where there was no industry at all in the past, many large modern industrial enterprises have been set up. These include the Karamay Oilfield in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Baotou Iron and Steel Co in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the Longyang Xia Hydroelectric Power Station in Qinghai, the Daba Power Plant in Guizhou, the Yangbajin Thermal and Power Station in Tibet, the Guizhou Aluminium Works in Guizhou, the Holingol River Coalfield in Inner Mongolia, the North Xinjiang Railway in Xinjiang, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway and the Qinghai-Tibet Highway.
Before liberation, there were no highways worthy of the name in Tibet. When the British wanted to send a car to the Dalai Lama as a gift, it had to be dismantled and carried to Lhasa by yak-back. At present, a highway network centred on Lhasa has been built, its mileage reaching 21 800 km, and many domestic and international airlines have already opened.
The state always gives aid in the form of labour, material and financial resources to national autonomous regions. Today