A senior Chinese official on Thursday defended the country's ethnic policy, saying that China has made great efforts to prevent cultural assimilation.

"The protection of ethnic culture is stipulated in China's Constitution, laws and regulations," said Tondrub Wangden, vice director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

He said China's ethnic policy is based on principle of equality, respect, solidarity and mutual assistance. "China's policy is by no means cultural assimilation. It focuses more on cultural development."

Commenting on economic impact on cultural traditions, Tondrub said cultural preservation is a universal conundrum and was not unique to China.

The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and water conservancy projects in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces had aroused concerns of cultural damages.

"Preservation does not mean isolation," Tondrub said, adding that it was misguided to isolate distinctive ethnic cultures for the sake of protection.

He said each nationality enjoyed equal rights of development. "While we are protecting cultural heritage, we need to think of the problem of development."

China has 56 nationalities. The Han nationality accounts for 90 percent of its total population. It has five autonomous regions for ethnic groups.

Tondrub said China's ethnic groups had the legal right to use and develop their own languages, freedom to keep or reform their traditions and freedom in faith.

He said the government had collected over one million ancient ethnic books, of which 5,000 types have been published, to protect ethnic cultures.

China's autonomous regions boasted more than 9,000 cultural institutions, including 513 performance art troupes, 566 libraries, 163 museums, 81 public art galleries, 642 cultural palaces and 6,894 cultural centers.

Tondrub cited a 20-day nationwide ethnic art festival currently underway, saying: "The performances will demonstrate whether there is cultural assimilation in China or not."

Over 4,500 ethnic artists have joined the art festival, which opened on Sept. 5.

Wang said the government has also made great efforts to help promote the popularization and development of ethnic languages.

China had 32 publishing houses producing books in 20 ethnic languages. Over 50 million books in ethnic languages were published each year.

In addition, 99 newspapers and 223 periodicals were issued in 10 ethnic languages.

Tondrub said with the support of central government, the radio and TV broadcasting industries in ethnic minority areas, especially the border regions of west China, had also achieved great progress.

The government had set up 73 radio and 90 television stations in autonomous regions with more than 200 programs in ethnic languages.

Source: Xinhua