Best Nationality Policy 　　This is the third article written by Our Staff Reporters Tang Weihong and Dong Hongjun in praise of socialism and to celebrate the 50th birthday of the People's Republic of China. The article runs as follows: 　　The Sixth Ethnic Minority Traditional Sports Meet is now going on in the Lhasa venue. This is a great event of China's sports and physical culture, it is all the more a gala meeting demonstrating national unity. 　　In September 1950, the capital of New China welcomed in a group of 300-odd unusual guests: most of them came from the remote border areas of the motherland. Among them were ordinary farmers, herdsmen, literary and art workers, as well as Living Buddha, ahong and headmen. That was the first National Day visiting group from minority nationalities. 　　Liu Long, former deputy director of the veteran cadres bureau of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said with feeling as he recalled the situation at that time, "the spirit of the central authorities at that time was to invite the delegations of various ethnic groups to come to Beijing for visit and sightseeing, and to send out delegations and consolation groups to various minority nationality areas to publicize reunification of the motherland and national unity." 　　Organizing National Day visiting groups of minority nationalities was one of the important moves taken by New China to solve a series of nationality problems left over from the old society and to eliminate national estrangement. Instituting the political system of regional national autonomy is a great creation of New China. 　　Regional national autonomy means that in localities inhabited by minority nationalities in compact communities under the unified leadership of the State, regional national autonomy is practiced, organs of self-governments are setup and autonomy is exercised, so that minority ethnic groups enjoy the right as masters of the affairs of their own nationalities and regions. This system organically combines the Marxist nationality theory with China's reality, giving a concentrated expression to the principle of equality, unity and common prosperity of China's various nationalities. 　　At present, five autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties (banners) have been set up in China. As an important supplementary form of the system of regional national autonomy, 1,200 ethnic townships have been set up, the nation has a total of 44 minority nationalities that have introduced the system of regional national autonomy. The implementation of democratic reform and socialist transformation have enabled the minority nationalities, whose social form was still in the late stage of the primitive society, or under the slave system and feudal serfdom, to have realized a historical leap forward and dramatically caught up with the advancement of the modern society. From central organizations down to local ones, minority nationality representatives are found to participate in the deliberation and administration of State affairs. While exercising the right of self-government, they comprehensively participate in the management of various State affairs. 　　In July 1998, General Secretary Jiang Zemin pointed out during his inspection tour of Xinjiang that a look at Chinese history of several thousand years shows New China's ethnic policy is the best. Compared to any other countries in the world, our ethnic policy is the most successful. 　　The reform and opening drive has brought about the second tremendous change in nationality areas since the dawn of their history. 　　Luo Qiuyi, deputy head of the Organization Department of Lingyun County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said with feeling when she talked about changes in her hometown: "In the early 1980s, when I returned to work in my township after graduation from a normal school, the township government was still housed in a thatched cottage. Over the past few years, we have vigorously popularized improved seeds in the whole township, conducted labor export in a planned way, and taken measures for non-local arrangements of labor force, thanks to these efforts, the formerly poor Yaoxiang Township has taken on a new look. At present, there are power supply and highway traffic service in each village of the township. Last year, per-capita income of the township hit 1,400 yuan. Faster changes are taking place in Yaoxiang Township every day. All these were inconceivable without the Party's good reform and opening policies." 　　Renowned scholar Mr. Fei Xiaotong said in one of his works that the Chinese nation has undergone two major qualitative changes before it enters the 21st century. First, the relationship of inequality among nationalities over the past thousands of years has not only been legally negated, but major changes have, in fact, been made. Second, China has begun to embark on the road to industrialization and modernization. The opening and reform drive has become a basic national policy, the closed-door situation has disappeared forever. 　　Zhong Jinwen, a doctoral student with the Minority Ethnic Language and Literature Institute of the Central University for Nationalities is the first doctor of China's Yugur nationality. While talking about changes in his hometown in the Yugur Autonomous County of southern Gansu, Zhong said feelingly, "When I returned home each time in the past few years, I found things changed quite a lot. When I just entered the university, almost all of those who failed in the entrance examinations remained in their hometown. Now, except for those who join the army or take entrance exams, others have gone elsewhere to work or do business, and this is a common practice. 　　Only with the common prosperity of various nationalities can long-term peace and tranquility of the country be guaranteed and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation be realized. 　　In the previous major changes after the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council gave full consideration to the special situation in minority nationality areas, respected the wishes of the masses of the minority ethnic groups, adopted policies and measures different from those practiced in Han nationality regions in the inland, as a result, minority ethnic groups and nationality areas have completely broken the yoke of the old relationship of production that restricted the development of productive forces, thus bringing about a great leap in just 50 short years that would have taken one thousand years in old China. GDP in nationality provinces and autonomous regions had increased from 5.6 billion yuan in 1952 to 757 billion yuan in 1998, calculated in accordance with comparable price, the average annual growth was 7.7 percent. In 1998, local financial revenue of ethnic regions exceeded 54 billion yuan. 　　Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, in particular, the speed of economic development in ethnic regions has become notably faster, GDP has increased from 32.4 billion yuan to 757 billion yuan, with the average annual growth standing at 10.5 percent, financial revenue has also climbed substantially. 　　In 1998, the total import and export trade volume in ethnic regions was worth 9.06 billion yuan, 20 times the 1978 figure. 　　A Tibetan in Dongga Township, Tibet Autonomous Region, said both he and his father had experiences in old Tibet. He said, "during the period when Tibet was under the rule of serf-owners, we did not have the freedom of person and lived a life of beasts. It was the Communist Party that led us to liberation and becoming masters of our own affairs. And today we are leading a happy life". 　　While reviewing the State's support to minority nationality regions, Li Dezhu, minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said that over the past five decades, the State has always regarded support for the development of minority ethnic groups and nationality regions as an important political task, and has always adopted special measures to push forward the modernization drive in nationality regions. 　　The various special funds the State grants in aid of nationality regions reaches several billion yuan each year. In addition, the State grants many preferential treatments to nationality regions in the aspects of investments, loans, taxation, as well as in production, supply, transportation and marketing. 　　The State has built a group of large key enterprises in nationality regions. All these have laid a solid foundation for the cross-century development of nationality regions. 　　Economy is the foundation while talents are the key factor. Since the birth of New China, the Party and government have adopted various measures to train minority nationality cadres. Today, there are nearly 2.7 million minority nationality cadres. 　　Sending minority nationality cadres to work at leading posts in the inland is a concrete measure taken by the Organization Department and the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission under the State Council to train young, outstanding personnel. Since 1990, some 1,000 minority nationality cadres have had such experience. 　　In an interview with correspondents, an official from the State Ethnic Affairs Commission indicated that with the concern of the Party and government, the support from the people of the whole country, a whole set of effective nationality policies, a large group of nationality cadres with both ability and political integrity, and the solid economic base laid down in the past half century, particularly in the last 20 years of reform and opening up, the relatively backward state of the nationality regions will change, nationality regions will enjoy a better future! TopNews 1999-09-08 Page1 Full Story in Chinese