"From hearty smiles from students' faces, you can tell cordiality of the people of different ethnicities in China that the country's ethnical policy has brought to," said Boqing, a student of Mongolia ethnicity, pointing to a crowd of college students on a campus in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

On the central government's ethnical polices, this junior of the elite Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot said, "Our 56 ethnic groups are very much like brothers and sisters in a big family. It is natural and reasonable to show some sort of special care and give help to all those in need."

As Boqing acknowledged, the Chinese government has spared no effort to protect the rights and interests of ethnic minority groups by promulgating relevant laws and the policies of autonomy in regions inhabited by various ethnic groups, and people from varied ethnic groups have been enjoying preference in education, employment and cadres' promotion.

With regard to family planning policy, an ethnic Mongolian native can have a second or even a third child, whereas the people of Daur, Ewenki and Oroqen ethnicities, which have relatively small populations, no limit has been imposed upon the number of children they are to have, "China's policies toward its ethnicities are aimed to improve the weak status quo of the people of Chinese ethnic minorities owing to historical reasons," said Sude Mide, a Ewenki native at the same university with Boqing.

The fifth national census show that the average population growth rate of the 55 ethnic groups nationwide stood at 15.4 percent in the 1990s, much higher than the 9.5 percent of the majority Han nationality.

"The concept for population scientific development constitutes the basis for a nation's survival and existence," said Boqing, and China's policies toward ethnicities are humane and people-first.

Currently, there are nearly 190,000 officials of ethnic origins in Inner Mongolia, or more than a quarter of the total officials ranks across the region.

The ratio far exceeds a 21-percent share of the ethnic population against the regional total, according to relevant statistics released the ethnic and foreign affairs committee of Inner Mongolia.

Bu Yin, a girl student of Mongolia ethnicity from northwestern China's Qinghai Province, said she did not mind much her own ethnicity, for she felt she was on an equal footing with others whenever talking with her peers of other ethnic groups at the campus.

"I will never forget my national obligation, nor abandon my own language, culture and customs," acknowledged Bu. "I select the Mongolian specialty for study, since I believe that a promising student in Mongolian major can also find an ideal job."

"I feel very proud as a Mongolian native," she said with pride.

Source: Xinhua