China has increasingly strengthened its assistance to impoverished ethnic minority areas, says a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council Monday.

According to the white paper titled Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, since the mid-1980s, when the Chinese government launched its large-scale poverty-alleviation drive in an organized and programmed way, ethnic minorities and areas they live have always been key targets of governmental aid.

Among the 331 impoverished counties designated as key recipients of state aid in 1986, 141 are in ethnic autonomous areas, accounting for 42.6 percent of the total.

In 1994, China began implementing a Seven-Year Program for Delivering 80 Million People out of Poverty, and among the 592 impoverished counties designated as key recipients of state aid, 257 are in ethnic autonomous areas, accounting for 43.4 percent of the total.

The Outline Program for Poverty Alleviation and Development in the Rural Areas of China, which began being implemented in 2001, once again recognized ethnic minority areas as key targets for assistance, the white paper says.

In the 592 counties newly designated for state poverty alleviation and development, 267 are located in ethnic autonomous areas (excluding Tibet), accounting for 45.1 percent of the total. Tibet as a whole has been included as a target for key poverty alleviation and development from the state.

In 1990, the state established the Food and Clothing Fund for Impoverished Ethnic Minority Areas, aiming primarily at impoverished ethnic minority counties. In 1992, the state established the Fund for Ethnic Minorities Development, which is mainly used to deal with special difficulties encountered in the development of ethnic autonomous areas, and in the production and lives of ethnic minorities.

Since 2000, the state has pursued a drive known as "More Prosperous Frontiers and Better-off People Action", adopting special measures to assist the 22 ethnic minority groups each with a population of less than 100,000, and focusing on infrastructure construction and the problem of food and clothing for impoverished people in frontier regions and ethnic minority areas with small populations, according to the white paper.