According to Chinese laws, organs of self-government in ethnic autonomous areas perform the functions of local state organs, and rights of ethnic minorities in these areas are well guaranteed, says a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council Monday.

Ethnic minorities in autonomous areas manage their rights independently, the white paper says. For example, ethnic people are elected among the chairmen or vice-chairmen of the standing committees of the people's congresses in all 155 autonomous areas.

Every ethnic group has its own deputy or deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC), or the state legislature, it says, adding that ethnic groups with a population of more than one million have members in the NPC Standing Committee.

According to the white paper, in China, the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities are widely used in the fields of law and justice, administration, education, political and social life, and other areas.

Soon after New China was founded in 1949, the State helped a dozen ethnic minorities improve or create their own written languages, says the white paper.

On important meetings, documents are available in Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazak, Korean, Yi and Zhuang, and simultaneous interpretation services in those languages are also provided, it adds.

The supply of special foods are ensured, the production and supply of special items are provided, and the marriage and funeral customs of ethnic minorities are respected, the white paper says.

Schools (classes) and other educational institutions whose students are predominantly from ethnic minority families should, if possible, use textbooks printed in their own languages, and lessons should be taught in those languages, it adds.

Chinese language courses shall be offered at different times of the primary school period depending on the particular situation, to propagate the use of putonghua (standard Chinese), it says.

Organs of self-government of autonomous areas independently determine development plans for their medical and health work, and promote modern medicine as well as their traditional ethnic minority medicines, the white paper says.

By the end of 2003, there were 157 ethnic hospitals in China. Of these, 55 were hospitals of Tibetan medicine, 41 hospitals of Mongolian medicine, 35 hospitals of Uygur medicine, one hospital of Dai medicine and 25 hospitals of other types of ethnic medicine. The total number of beds in these hospitals is 5,829, it adds.

Organs of self-government of autonomous areas make their own decisions when it comes to sports and the development of traditional ethnic sports activities, the white paper says, citing that by the end of 2003, China had held the National Traditional Ethnic Minority Sports Meet seven times.