1. The Ethnic Regional Autonomy System Is the Basic Policy and Political System for the Solution of China's Nationality Problems

China is a united multi-ethnic country with 55 minorities besides the Han nationality. All nationalities have made glorious contributions to expanding boundaries and creating cultures in the history of China.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central People's Government has attached great importance to the nationality problems and kept upholding the policy of equality, unity, mutual assistance, co-development and co-prosperity among all nationalities and regarding it as the basic principle of handling nationality problems and relations among nationalities. Adopting the policy of ethnic regional autonomy in the area of minorities is the certain result of Chinese history and the economic and social development in late times. Firstly all nationalities have been lived together in a unitary country and created a united country, history and culture, with contact and mutual assistance never interrupted. Their societies, economies and cultures have integrated over the long history and inseparability has been formed among them. Secondly from the economic point of view, the minority areas have vast land and rich resources but relatively backward economic and cultural development. On the contrary, areas of Han nationality have better economy but inadequate resources. Only with both the two areas integrated and helping each other can the whole country be developed and all nationalities be prosperous. Thirdly respecting the characteristics of different nationalities and securing their rights request an appropriate system, which is the ethnic regional autonomy system with Chinese characteristics.

Up till now, China has set up 155 autonomous local areas, including 5 autonomous regions (including Tibet Autonomous Region), 30 autonomous prefectures(including 10 Tibetan autonomy prefecture in Sichuan province, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Yunnan Province), 120 autonomous counties. The population of minorities amounts to 108 million, which accounts for 98% of the total population. Among them Tibet Autonomous Region has a population of 2.44 million with 96.3% of them are Tibetans.

2. The Basic Meanings of Ethnic Regional Autonomy System

The ethnic regional autonomy means practicing regional autonomy, setting up autonomous organs and exercising autonomous power. The autonomous organs are People's Congress, People's Government. Local Ethnic Autonomous Organizations are the direct local authority and administrative organs of the country.

To be specific, the basic meanings of China's Ethnic Regional Autonomy Policy have two sides. On the one hand, it means setting up organs of self-government and giving minorities the autonomy to handle local and internal affairs based on the principle of equality among nationalities and under the leadership of Central People's Government. On the other hand, ethnic regional autonomous regions, like other administrative regions in China, are inseparable parts of China. The autonomous jurisdiction of ethnic autonomous regions is local self-government power given by the Central People's Government to handle the internal affairs of ethnic regions. Being a part of the China's complete authority system, it's under the control of Central People's Government, just like all levels of autonomous organs exercising this authority and the other local government.

3. Autonomous Rights Enjoyed By the Ethnic Autonomous Region

According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Law of the People's Republic of China Governing Regional National Autonomy, people's congresses in the areas of national autonomy have the right to formulate regulations on the exercise of autonomy or specific regulations in accordance with the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the local nationalities, besides the authority shared by all organs at the same level. It mainly includes Right to enact regulations on the exercise of autonomy and separate regulations in light of local political, economic and cultural characteristics.

Right to implement laws and policies set by Central People's Government in accordance with local practices.

Autonomous right to administer local finance and right to manage local economic construction.

Right to protect, explore and utilize local natural resources in accordance with laws set by Central People's Government.

Right to administer local projects of education, science, culture, sanitation, sports, and protecting national cultural relics, as well as developing national cultures.

Right to freely use and develop national spoken and written languages.

The chairman or vice chairman of the standing committee of the autonomous regions, the chairman of an autonomous region, head of an autonomous prefecture or an autonomous county should be citizens of the ethnic groups.

Rights illustrated above are important reflections of minorities exercising autonomous power on the country's and local matters.

4. The Practice of Ethnic Regional Autonomy System in China's Tibet Autonomous Region

The old Tibet was under the despotic feudal serf system marked by combination of government and religion and the dictatorship of lamas and nobles, which seriously handicapped the development of social productive forces and social progress, keeping Tibet in a state of extreme backwardness and obturation for a long time. Although they accounted for less than 5 percent of Tibet's population, they owned all of Tibet's farmland, pastures, forests, mountains and rivers as well as most livestock. On the contrary, the serfs engaged in hard labor year in and year out and yet had no guaranteed food or clothing. They had no basic human rights and certainly no political rights as well.

The central people's government and the local government of Tibet signed in 1951 the 17-Article Agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, which brought hope to the Tibetan people in their struggle for equal personal and political rights. The 3rd article stipulates, in accordance with the nationality policy in the Common Document of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (acting as constitutions in a short period of time after the founding of PRC), Tibetan citizens have the rights of exercising the power of ethnic regional autonomy.

In April 1956, the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up in accordance with the Central People's Government's decision, with Dalai as the directive commissary and Penchen Erdeny as the 1st deputy directive commissary. Being a consultative organ with regime power, its basic tasks are, organize the democratic reform and create necessary conditions for the establishment of ethnic regional autonomy system.

In 1959, armed rebellion occurred in Tibet and Dalai fled China. The State Council issued an ordination in March 28th to dissolve the Tibetan local government and empower the Preparatory Committee for Autonomous Region to exercise its authority instead. In several years later, democratic reforms had taken place in Tibet, and feudal serfdom was abolished. Citizens of the Tibet Autonomous Region voted to establish political organs at all level, which showed that the conditions for setting up Tibet Autonomous Region was mature.

The Tibet Autonomous Region was formally founded in 1965, representing the realization of ethnic regional autonomous rights of the Tibetan people. The Tibetan people stepped into the equal, united and prosperous road of socialism as all the other nationalities in China.

Over the past thirty years, the Tibetan people have been working hard together and have brought world-shaking political and economic changes to Tibet. Here are some examples.

Legislation----The People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region has since 1965 formulated more than 120 local rules and decrees which covers areas of regime construction, social and economic development, marriage, culture, education, sanitation, languages, jurisdictions, and protection of forests, grasslands, wild animals and natural resources. The formulation and implementation of these local rules and regulations have furnished an important legal guarantee to the realization of democratic rights for the Tibetan people and to the development of local social, economic and cultural undertakings.

These local rules and regulations have apparent characteristics of the Tibetan local ethnic regional autonomy. For instance, regarding the regime construction, it's clearly stipulated that Tibetans and people of other minorities must account for over 80% in the People's Congress of the autonomous regions. Currently, Tibetan and other minority representatives in the autonomous region, city, county, village account for 82.18%, 81.96%, 90% and 99% respectively.

Team of minority cadres----Training, choosing and appointing minority cadres is an important part of implementing ethnic regional autonomy. In order to help Tibetan citizens to better exercise their rights of managing and national and local affairs, the Central People's Government have attached great importance to training cadres of Tibetan nationality. Currently, there are 49,752 cadres of Tibetan and other minority nationalities, which accounts for 73.88% of all cadres. All the main leading posts in the people's congresses, governments, and people's political consultative conferences at various levels are filled by Tibetans and other minority nationalities. Tibetan women were in the lowest echelon of society in old Tibet. Today, many of them take posts in the autonomous governments at all levels and some of them even hold leading posts.

In order to develop Tibetan economy and improve the cause of Tibetan science and culture, the Central People's Government has attached great importance to the training of Tibetan cadres with technical expertise. Currently, there are about 20 thousand cadres of this kind in the region. These cadres, including scholars, researchers, architectures, engineers, agriculturists, doctors, authors, journalists, artists, etc, take important roles in all kinds of fields in Tibet.

The Tibetan language----the spoken and written Tibetan language is widely used throughout the whole Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Autonomous Government of Tibet promulgated and implemented Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Study, Use and Development of the Spoken and Written Tibetan Language (Draft) and the Rules for the Implementation of Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Study, Use and Development of the Spoken and Written Tibetan Language (Draft) in 1987 and 1988, respectively, explicitly stipulated the principle of using both Tibetan and Han Chinese languages should be used in the Tibetan Autonomous Region with precedence given to the Tibetan language. Now both the two languages are used for all work units' official seals, certificates, forms, stationery, hotels, cinemas, theaters and gymnasiums, street and road signs, and traffic signs. Tibetan languages are used in all big conferences attended by the public and the Tibetan language is the main course in all schools.

On August 2nd to 4th, 2000, the Tibetan Autonomous Region held Conference of Work on Regional Tibetan Language, making a summary to the work on regional Tibetan language I recent years and arranging the work on Tibetan languages in the next period of time. In August 2000, the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China release a report on the Study, Using and Development of Tibetan Language.

According to the news on April 20th, 1997 from the Xinhua News Agency, the Tibetan language has reached standardization and the promotion as an Internet communication tool. In the Conference of International Standard Examination of Multi-coding held in 1996, Chinese pattern of encoded Tibetan Language was formally recognized and currently being used as the international standard by Microsoft Corp. U.S.A.

Protection of cultural relics----Since 1980, the People's Government of Tibetan Autonomous Region have conducted archeological work extensively on the more than 20 cultural sited under state-level or region-level protection and ancient buildings and places of interests. Recent years, China has invested more than 50 million yuan, as well as human resources and materials to repair the Potala Palace. The maintenance project of Ganden Monastery costing 2.5 million was finished in September 1997. Ever since then, another 56 cultural relics have been listed as the autonomous-level unit under protection, and 5 ones including Sakye Monastery are under state-level protection. Besides, the Tibet Autonomous Region Museum, one of 62 projects conducted by the Central People's Government to aid Tibet was established in 1997.

Protection of zoology and environment----Statistics shows that Tibet has about 7.17 million-hectare woodland, 64 hundred categories of highland plants, more than 10 hundred kinds of medical plants and 2.3 hundred kinds of wild animals, among which 141 kinds are under state-level or autonomous-level protection.

While vigorously developing Tibetan economy, the people's government attaches great importance to environmental protection in Tibet. Conscientiously carrying out the state's basic policy on environmental protection, the Tibet Autonomous Region perseveres in its basic state strategy of synchronized planning and undertaking of economic, urban, rural and environmental construction and have published and implemented a series of laws and regulations, such as the Regulations for the Protection of Forests in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Provisional Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Administration of Grasslands, and so on. In the field of wildlife protection alone, there are more than 20 documents on related regulations and systems. The autonomous government has set up the Everest Mountain Environmental Protection District, protection districts of wild animals, etc, and established the Environmental Protection Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is in charge of such undertakings in the whole region. According to the monitoring station, environmental conditions are good in Tibet. Generally speaking, there is no pollution of the atmosphere or water. The industrial and other pollution is very slight. No accident of environmental pollution has ever occurred.

Currently, the Tibetan Autonomous Region is seizing the historical chance of China's developing the west region to set programs for a faster pace of the social and economic development.

Decades of practices of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities, especially in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, are proved to be a political system in conformity with China's national conditions. It has enhanced the cohesion among all nationalities in China and secured the unity of the country and nationalities, as well as facilitated the prosperity and development of the ethnic regions. Being a fundamental state policy, it will exist for a long time and will keep developing and being better and better.

(Source: en.tibet.cn)