V. Historical Development of Various Undertakings in Ethnic
Autonomous Areas
Before the founding of New China, the ethnic minority areas suffered from low
productivity, and underdeveloped economy, society and culture. They had little
modern industry, few educational or medical services, and poor infrastructure.
Most of their populations were illiterate, and they suffered epidemics of such
contagious diseases as plague, smallpox and malaria. They mainly engaged in
traditional farming and animal husbandry, the slash-and-burn method of farming
was still practiced in some of the ethnic minority areas, and iron tools had
even not been widelyused in some places. The people lived in destitution, and
those living in mountainous areas, deserts and on saline-alkali soils were out
of food for a few months almost every year. The development of ethnic minorities
was seriously hindered, and some were on the verge of extinction.
Since the founding of New China, and especially since the introduction of the
reform and opening-up policies, the people of various ethnic groups in the
autonomous areas have exploited theirown advantages, relied on their own
efforts, worked with stamina and diligence, and continuously enhanced their
self-development ability with energetic assistance and aid from the state and
the more-developed areas. As a result of over half a century's efforts,in the
ethnic autonomous areas the people's living conditions and environments have
conspicuously improved, and the local economy and various public services have
developed rapidly. Together with the people of the other parts of China, they
share the achievements of development brought about by the modernization
construction of the country.
(1) Rapid Economic Growth
In 2003, the GDP of China's ethnic autonomous areas reached 1,038.1 billion
yuan, exceeding 1,000 billion yuan for the first time. From 1994 to 2003, the
GDP of the ethnic autonomous areas grew by an average of 9.87 percent annually,
which was nearly one percentage point higher than the national average. The
proportion of the GDP of the ethnic autonomous areas in the national total rose
from 8.5 percent in 1994 to 8.9 percent in 2003. In 1994, theper-capita GDP of
the ethnic autonomous areas was 63.5 percent of the national per-capita average.
In 2003, the percentage rose to 66.3 percent. Also in 2003, the local revenue of
the ethnic autonomous areas reached 67.4 billion yuan, 3.3 times over that
of1994. In 2003, the GDP of Xinjiang was 187.761 billion yuan, accounting for
1.60 percent of the national total, and an increaseof 0.06 percentage points
compared with 1993; the GDP of Tibet was18.450 billion yuan, accounting for 0.16
percent of the national total, and an increase of 0.04 percentage points
compared with 1993. In the same year, the per-capita GDP in Xinjiang was 9,700
yuan, equivalent to 106.58 percent of the national per-capita average; and the
per-capita GDP in Tibet was 6,871 yuan, equivalent to 75.5 percent of the
national per-capita average.
(2) Obvious Rise of Living Standards
In 2003, the per-capita net income of rural residents in ethnicautonomous
areas was 1,895 yuan, 2.31 times that in 1994. The per-capita net income of
rural residents in Xinjiang and Tibet were 2,106.19 yuan and 1,690.76 yuan,
respectively, equivalent to 80.32 percent and 64.48 percent of that of rural
residents nationwide.
In 2003, the housing conditions of the residents of the ethnic autonomous
areas continued to improve. The per-capita housing space in urban areas was 19.8
sq m, and that in rural areas was 22.9 sq m. The balance of various kinds of
savings in ethnic autonomous areas was 1,175 billion yuan, of which those of the
residents of both urban and rural areas at the end of the year was735.3 billion
yuan, four times that in 1994.
(3) Distinct Improvement of Infrastructure
In 2003, the total investment in fixed assets in ethnic autonomous areas was
473.4 billion yuan, 3.7 times that of 1994. Of this, 283.7 billion yuan was
invested in infrastructure construction, 4.2 times that of 1994. By the end of
2003, there were 22.73 million fixed telephone users in ethnic autonomous areas,
among whom 15.32 million were urban residents. The number of mobile phone users
reached 23.07 million. In 2003, the state-owned railway operation mileage in
ethnic autonomous areas reached15,100 km, a near three-fold increase compared
with 1952; the highways open to traffic in those areas totaled 547,800 km, 21
times that in 1952. In addition, the urbanization levels of Inner Mongolia,
Ningxia and Xinjiang have exceeded the national average.
(4) Protection and Fostering of Traditional Cultures
From the 1950s to the 1980s, the central authorities organized over 3,000
experts and scholars to compile and publish five seriesof books on ethnic
minorities, totaling 403 volumes and over 90 million Chinese characters. The
series are: The Ethnic Minorities in China, A Series of Books on the Brief
History of the Ethnic Minorities in China, A Series of Books on the Brief Record
of the Languages of the Ethnic Minorities in China, A Series of Books on the
Survey of Autonomous Areas of Ethnic Minorities in China, and A Collection of
Research Materials on the Societies and Histories of the Ethnic Minorities in
China. Over 500,000 copies have been distributed. Today, each of the 55 ethnic
minorities in China has its own brief written history.
The 55 ethnic minorities in China, except for the Chinese-speaking Hui and
Manchu, each have their own language. The Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Korean and
Yi languages have coded character sets and national standards for fonts and
keyboard. Software in the Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur and Korean languages canbe
run in the Windows system, and laser photo-typesetting in theselanguages has
been realized. Applied software in languages of ethnic minorities are emerging
one after another, and some achievements have been made in research into the OCR
(optic character recognition) of languages of ethnic minorities and
machine-aided translation.
The state has set up special institutions to collect, assort, translate and
study in an organized and programmed manner the three major heroic epics of
China's ethnic minorities, i.e., Gesar(an oral Tibetan epic), Jangar (a
Mongolian epic) and Manas (an epic of the Kirgiz people). In the past decade,
the state has appropriated over 30 million yuan for the collation and
publishingof 160 volumes of the Buddhist Tripitaka in the Tibetan language. It
has also earmarked a large amount of funds for the renovation of the Drepung,
Sera and Ganden monasteries in Tibet, the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai, and the
Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves in Xinjiang, and many other key national cultural
relics. From 1989 to 1994, the state invested 55 million yuan and 1,000 kg of
gold in the first-stage renovation of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital of the
Tibet Autonomous Region, and in 2001, 330 million yuan for the second-stage
renovation.
With the assistance of the state and efforts of the ethnic autonomous areas,
by 2003, 4,787 titles of books in ethnic minority languages had been published,
totaling 50.34 million copies. There were also 205 magazines and 88 newspapers
in such languages, totaling 7.81 million copies and 131.30 million
copies,respectively. The ethnic autonomous areas had set up 513 art performance
troupes, 566 libraries and 163 museums. In 2003, the ethnic autonomous areas had
122 radio broadcasting organizations with 73 radio stations and 523 radio
transmitting stations, broadcasting in 15 ethnic minority languages; 111 TV
broadcasting organizations with 94 TV stations and 830 TV transmitting
stations,broadcasting in 11 ethnic minority languages. There were also 254,900
satellite radio and TV receiving and relaying systems.
(5) Education Level Markedly Raised
In 2003, there were 83,726 schools at all levels and of all kinds in ethnic
autonomous areas, with a total enrollment of 29.43million, an increase of five
fold compared with 1952, of 29.7 percent compared with 1984 and of 10.6 percent
compared with 1994.There were 1.541 million specialized teachers, an increase of
16 percent compared with 1994. The development of education has greatly extended
the years of schooling of the people of ethnic minorities. The fifth national
census, conducted in 2000, showed that the years of schooling of 14 ethnic
minorities, including theKorean, Manchu, Mongolian and Kazak groups, were higher
than the national average.
(6) Continuous Progress in Medical Services and Public Health
By the end of 2003, the ethnic autonomous areas had 15,230 medical
institutions, 13 times the number in 1952; 380,000 hospital beds, nearly 67
times the number in 1952; 460,000 medicaltechnicians, almost 26 times the number
in 1952; 934 epidemic-control and specialized prevention and treatment
institutions; and371 clinics and health centers specially catered to women and
children. In rural areas, there were 7,234 township hospitals, with 55,000 beds.
The development of medical services has greatly increased the life expectancy of
the ethnic minority people. The life expectancy of 13 ethnic minorities is
higher than the national average, which is 71.40 years, and those of seven of
themare higher than the average of the Han people, which is 73.34 years.
(7) Rapid Development of Foreign Trade and Tourism
In 2003, the total value of imports and exports of the ethnic autonomous
areas was 13.6 billion US dollars, including 7.9 billion US dollars-worth of
imports and 5.7 billion US dollars-worth of exports. The 3,263 foreign-invested
enterprises in these areas used two billion US dollars of foreign investment in
2003. In the same year, these areas hosted 123.33 million domestic tourists and
2.15 million international tourists, the incomes fromdomestic and international
tourism reaching 56.3 billion yuan and 600 million US dollars,
respectively.
