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Regional ethnic autonomy vital for socialism with Chinese characteristics |
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16:15, August 07, 2007 |
People''s Daily, the leading newspaper in China, on Tuesday front-pages a special, lengthy article, titled "the regional ethnic autonomy, a vital guarantee for socialism with Chinese characteristics" to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Its detailed account reads as follows:
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the first ever of its kind in China, was founded in 1947, two years prior to the establishment of new China. It not only ushered in a new epoch for the development of Inner Mongolia but opened up a new road for ethnical development with Chinese characteristics.
Earth-shaking changes that occurred in the great Inner Mongolia Grassland over the past six decades has annotated a tremendous superiority and vitality of the system of regional ethnic autonomy. The annual disposal income of local residents on the steppe have shot up from less than 100 yuan (a dozen US dollars) in the past to 10,358 yuan (1,345 dollars) per capita for its urban residents and 3,342 yuan (474 dollars) per capital for local farmers and herders, and its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) ranks the top ten among the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions nationwide.
Keeping in step with its founding, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in northwest China, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in south China and the Tibet autonomous region in the southwest came into being one after another. To date, there are 155 areas with the exercise of regional ethnic autonomy nationwide. So the regional ethnic autonomy system, along with the National People''s Congress and the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) represent the three major political systems in the country.
The ethnic minority areas, which make up over 64 percent of China''s territory, have undergone vicissitudes, from backwardness to progress, from seclusion to opening-up and from abject poverty to fortune. We opted for regional ethnic autonomy to ensure the rights of ethnic minority people as masters of their own destiny and spurred development and prosperity in ethnic minority areas six decades ago and, six decades later, China has become a country with rapid economic growth, a stable society and a sound ethnic unity.
The CPC had advocated regional ethnic autonomy back in the second revolutionary civil war period of the early late 1920s and 1930s. It unequivocally cited regional ethnic autonomy as a basic principle for resolving the issue with Inner Mongolia in October 1945. At a crucial historic juncture to make preparations for founding new China and to formulate the "Common Program," the CPC eventually designated the exercise of regional ethnic autonomy and bestowed the ethnic minority people with the right to govern internal affairs in their ethnic minority areas.
The existence of minority ethnicities and the ethnical issue are the longstanding historical phenomena. Set in a backdrop of big historical coordinates, new China''s launch of the regional ethnic autonomy system is a correct option to respect history, conform to the specific national conditions and comply with the common aspirations of the Chinese people.
From the practical conditions, the majority Han people has a vast population, whereas the people of ethnic minorities inhabit on a vast expanse of land abounding in natural resources. So they complement each other and make each other''s deficiency. Meanwhile, every ethnic group has its own unique culture at a different phase of economic and social development. Therefore, it is imperative not only to work to defend national unity and jointly build a powerful nation but to pay attention to diversity and characteristics of ethnic minorities proceeding from the ethnical and regional realities. It constitutes the CPC''s contributions to the global peaceful development to implement regional ethnical autonomy in such a big country of 56 ethnicities with a combined population of 1.3 billions.
Late senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said history had proven regional ethnic autonomy as a "decisive factor" in the endeavor of the CPC to resolve the ethnic issue. Through six decades of exploration and practice, the connotation of China''s regional ethnic autonomy has become increasingly clear and distinct.
The national centralized unity represents a prerequisite. China''s regional ethnic autonomy is an autonomy led by the centralized unity of the state, and ethnic minority areas constitute a part not to be separated from the country, and so their autonomous regional organs have to subject themselves to the leadership of central authorities.
It is crucial for regional autonomous organs to exercise their regional ethnic, autonomic power. Apart from the ordinary power enjoyed by regional state powers according to the Constitution and the Law of Regional Ethnic Autonomy, the people''s congresses and people''s governments in the autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and counties also exercise some powers of regional autonomy. The crux of the matter is, nevertheless, the training of ethnical cadres, as regional ethnic autonomy cannot be demonsrated with the absence of regional ethnic officials.
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