IV. Promoting the Common Development of All Ethnic Groups
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, agriculture and
animal husbandry, the main economies in China's minority areas, developed
very slowly. Some areas still remained in the primitive
``slash-and-burn'' stage of agricultural production, and in some areas,
iron farm tool were not in use. In addition, water conservancy facilities
were inadequate. In 1949 the average per-hectare yield of grain in
minority areas was only 1,125 kg, and the total agricultural output of
those areas was only worth 3.12 billion yuan. Before the founding of the
People's Republic of China, there were almost no modern industries in
ethnic minority areas. In 1949, the total industrial output value of
these areas was only 540 million yuan. Communications, posts and
telecommunications were also very backward; goods were transported mainly
by animals and people. There were very few automobiles or highways, and
more often than not, it took one month or longer to deliver a letter.
Many people had never seen an automobile or a telephone, and there was
not a single road in Tibet.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state has
spared no effort to promote the common development and progress of all
ethnic groups. In accordance with the actual conditions in the ethnic
minority areas, the state has worked out and adopted a series of policies
and measures to assist these areas in developing their economies, and
mobilize and organize the developed areas where Han people live to
support them. In the Law of the People's Republic of China on Ethnic
Regional Autonomy, 13 articles specify the duties of the state organs at
higher levels to help the ethnic autonomous areas with their development.
While working out the plan for the national economic and social
development, the state arranged some important projects in the national
minority areas in a planned and conscious way to readjust their
single-product economic structure, develop diversified industries and
improve the comprehensive economic strength of those areas. Especially
along with the constant deepening of China's reform and opening to the
outside world in recent years, the state has increased its investments in
minority areas to speed up their pace of opening-up, thus making the
minority areas show new vitality for economic development.
Strengthening the Construction of Infrastructure Facilities and Promoting
the Development of Basic Industries in Minority Areas
During the First Five-Year Plan period (1953-1957), the state started to
construct a number of key projects in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region, such as the Baotou Iron and Steel Base in Inner
Mongolia, the Qingtongxia Hydropower Station in Ningxia, petroleum
exploration in Xinjiang and the development of the Hinggan Mountains
Forest Area in Inner Mongolia. In the 1950s and 1960s, China completed
the Sichuan-Tibet, Qinghai-Tibet, Xinjiang-Tibet and other main highways
in minority areas, and built the Baotou-Lanzhou, Lanzhou-Xining,
Lanzhou-Urumqi, Guiyang-Kunming, Chengdu-Kunming, Chengdu-Guiyang, and
Changsha-Guiyang trunk railways leading to the minority areas in
northwest and southwest China. In addition, a large number of large and
medium-sized industrial enterprises were set up one after another in
minority areas, and a total of more than 1,400 industrial enterprises
were set up in the five autonomous regions and the places where ethnic
minorities live in concentrated communities in Yunnan, Guizhou and
Qinghai provinces.
The state has shown great concern for infrastructure facilities
construction and basic industries development in minority areas, giving
priority to the arrangement of water conservancy, power, communications,
environmental protection and natural resource development projects in
central and western China where ethnic minorities are comparatively
concentrated. A preferential policy on investment has been adopted so as
to guide more foreign investments to those areas. In 1998, of the total
increased financial investment by the state, 62 percent was used in
central and western China, and the investment made by the central
authorities in fixed assets in central and western China increased by
31.2 percent, or 14.9 percentage points higher than that in eastern China
and the highest figure since the founding of New China. These policies
and measures have greatly promoted the economic development of ethnic
minority areas (see Table 3). According to statistics, in 1998 railway
traffic mileage in these areas totaled 17,300 km, or 4.6 times the 1952
figure, and the highway traffic mileage, 374,100 km or 14.4 times the
1952 figure. The postal routes and total rural delivery distance came to
1.1354 million km, or 8.6 times the 1952 figure.
Table 3 The Development of Major Industries in National Minority
Autonomous Areas in 1952 and 1998
Item 1952 1998
total industrial output value (100 million yuan) 5.4 5,313.0
output of pig iron (10,000 tons) 0.90 701.73
output of steel (10,000 tons) 0.06 632.80
output of raw coal (10,000 tons) 178.0 17,568.6
output of crude oil (10,000 tons) 5.20 2,047.24
generated energy (100 million KWH) 0.8 1,323.1
In recent years, thanks to huge state assistance, Xinjiang has completed
a number of modern, technologically advanced large and medium-sized
industrial projects, such as the Urumqi General Petrochemicals Factory
and the ethylene project of the Dushanzi General Petrochemicals Factory,
as well as a number of large communications facilities, such as the
Southern Xinjiang Railway, the Tacheng Airport and the high-grade
Turpan-Urumqi-Dahuangshan Highway. According to statistics, during the 20
years from 1978 to 1997, Xinjiang completed and put into operation more
than 50,000 projects, including 64 large and medium-sized ones, with
fixed assets totaling 190 billion yuan. These investments have greatly
improved Xinjiang's water conservancy, communications, posts and
telecommunications and other infrastructure facilities. Xinjiang has
become the fourth-biggest oil producing and processing area in China, as
well as an important cotton and woolen textile base and a fur processing
base9.
The Central Government has extended special support to the construction
of infrastructure facilities and the development of basic industries in
Tibet. In 1984, the Central Government organized manpower and material
resources from nine provinces and municipalities to help Tibet build 43
projects in just over a year, covering energy, communications,
construction materials and municipal works and involving a total
investment of 480 million yuan. In 1994, the Central Government also
decided that the central authorities and the provinces and municipalities
throughout the country should help Tibet construct 62 projects without
compensation, with the total investment exceeding four billion yuan. So
far, 60 of them have been completed. In 1997 the Yamzho Yumco Water
Pumping and Energy Storing Power Station, built with state investment
totaling 2.014 billion yuan, was completed and began to generate
electricity. According to statistics, from the 1950s to 1998, the Central
Government invested more than 40 billion yuan in Tibet, and transported a
great amount of materials to it. The aid offered by the Central
Government and other provinces and municipalities has greatly improved
the construction of infrastructure facilities and basic industries in
Tibet. Now Tibet has power, mining, construction materials, forestry,
woolen textile, printing, food and other modern industries.
Developing Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in Ethnic Minority Areas
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the governments at
all levels, from the central to the local, have actively led ethnic
minority farmers and herdsmen to start capital construction on farmland
and grasslands, and have adopted various measures to develop the rural
economy and improve the agricultural production level. Through various
measures, such as providing free farm tools and production capital,
reducing and exempting agricultural and animal husbandry taxes, and
issuing interest-free or low-interest loans, the Chinese government has
made remarkable achievements in supporting the rural economic development
of the areas inhabited by minority peoples (see Table 4). In 1998, the
net income per farmer in ethnic minority autonomous areas reached
1,633.11 yuan, or 21.5 times the 1980 figure.
Table 4 Main Items of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Development in
National Minority Autonomous Areas in 1952 and 1998
Item 1952 1998
total agricultural output value (100 million yuan) 31.2 3,210.5
grain output (10,000 tons) 1,581.5 7,295.43
total number of big livestock (10,000 head) 2,439.2 5,564.7
In the early 1980s, the Central Government decided on two policies toward
Tibet that would not be changed for a long time to come -- ``The land
will be used by households, and will be managed by them on their own,''
and ``livestock will be owned, raised and managed by households on their
own'' --and offered exemption from taxes to farmers, thus greatly rousing
the enthusiasm for production of the farmers and herdsmen, who make up
over 80 percent of the total population of Tibet, and resulting in bumper
harvests in agricultural production year after year. In 1998, the total
grain output of the Tibet Autonomous Region stood at 850,000 tons, or 5.6
times the 1959 figure. To further improve the conditions for agricultural
and animal husbandry production, in the 1990s the state has invested more
than two billion yuan to comprehensively develop and improve the
agricultural infrastructure facilities in the valleys of the
Yarlungzangbo, Lhasa and Nyangqu rivers. It is planned that 40 projects
will be constructed. After the completion of these projects, 45.6 percent
of the existing cultivated area in Tibet will benefit from them. Thanks
to the support of the state, since 1989 the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
has completed the first and second phases of the comprehensive
agricultural development in the Hetao Irrigated Area, reclaimed 40,000 ha
of wasteland, and ameliorated more than 100,000 ha of medium- and
low-yield fields, enabling an additional production capacity of nearly
400 million kg of grain10.
To accelerate the development of the townships, in 1993 the Chinese
government formulated the Regulations on the Administrative Work of
Ethnic Townships, specifying that the governments at higher levels should
adopt special policies and measures concerning finance, banking,
taxation, the construction of infrastructure facilities, and other fields
to help ethnic townships to develop their economies. During the Eighth
Five-Year Plan period (1991-1995), the Chinese government offered
discount-interest loans totaling 100 million yuan every year to assist
minority areas in developing township enterprises.
Increasing the Momentum of Reform and Opening-Up in Minority Areas
Since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening-up by China at the
end of the 1970s, minority areas, like the other areas throughout the
country, have undertaken, along the line of establishing a socialist
market economy system, a series of reforms concerning rural areas,
state-owned enterprises, taxes, finance, investment, foreign trade,
circulation, social security, and housing. Fundamental changes have taken
place in their economic systems and operational mechanisms; and the level
of marketization and socialization of the local economies have been
remarkably improved. Meanwhile, along with the formation of the state
omni-directional, multi-level and wide-ranging opening pattern, ethnic
minority areas have brought into full play their respective advantages of
lying along the coasts, the rivers and the country's borders to actively
develop border trade and foreign economic and technological cooperation;
and their opening to the outside world has entered a new stage. Their
status and role in the nation's overall opening pattern is also becoming
daily more pronounced.
Since the end of the 1970s, while adopting various preferential policies,
such as extending financial subsidies to minority areas and establishing
development funds, the state has encouraged minority areas to actively
start the introduction of foreign investment and technology and domestic
cooperation, and develop frontier trade according to local circumstances.
It has supported minority areas in their efforts to promote the
readjustment of their social and economic structures, and strengthen
their self-development ability through active and stable reform measures.
In 1987, the state defined that places with right conditions in frontier
minority areas should be selected to learn the international experiences
of setting up inland development zones and frontier free trade zones, to
speed up the opening there. To enliven economy in frontier areas, bring
prosperity to frontier residents and promote economic and trade
cooperation with adjacent countries, the state decided, in 1992, further
to open a number of inland border cities with large minority populations,
including Manzhouli and Erlianhot of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region, Hunchun of Jilin Province, Yining, Bole and Tacheng of the
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Pingxiang and Dongxing of the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In 1993, the state selected seven
ethnic localities--Hulun Buir League, Wuhai City, Yanbian Korea
Autonomous Prefecture, Southeast Guizhou Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture,
Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Golmud City, and Ili Kazak Autonomous
Prefecture, as areas for pilot projects for reform and opening-up.
In the 1980s, Beihai City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was
listed as one of the country's 14 coastal open cities; another one city
and five counties were named as national coastal economic open zones;
Urumqi, Nanning, Kunming, Hohhot, Yinchuan, Xining, Guiyang and other
capital cities of ethnic minority autonomous regions and provinces which
have fairly large minority populations, were listed as inland open
cities; the state also gave approval to Guilin, Nanning, Urumqi and
Baotou cities, which are four large and medium-sized cities in minority
areas, to establish new- and high-tech industrial development zones.
So far, Xinjiang has established stable economic and trade relations with
more than 70 countries and regions worldwide. From 1992 to 1997,
Xinjiang's total import and export volume reached 6.99 billion US
dollars-worth, with an average annual growth rate of 21.1 percent. The
six open cities, the economic and technological development zones, and
the frontier economic cooperation zones in Xinjiang have made great
achievements in construction and investment solicitation. Xinjiang has
opened 15 trading ports, and the completion of the multiple tracking of
the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway and the opening of the second Euro-Asia
Continental Bridge has resulted in the basic formation of a modernized
northwest international thoroughfare.
Since Guangxi adopted the policy of opening to the outside world, its
foreign capital has constantly increased. During the Eighth Five-Year
Plan period (1991-1995), Guangxi actually utilized 3.24 billion US
dollars of foreign capital (including loans from foreign governments), or
6.6 times the figure of the Seventh Five-Year Plan period (1986-1990). By
the end of 1997, Guangxi had accumulatively approved 8,505
foreign-invested projects, involving 13.79 billion US dollars of
contracted foreign capital, and had actually utilized 6.71 billion US
dollars of foreign capital. So far, more than 30 countries and regions
have invested in Guangxi11.
Preferential Financial Policies for Minority Areas
The state set up ``ethnic region subsidies'' in 1955, and the Flexible
Ethnic Region Fund in 1964, and adopted the preferential financial policy
of raising the proportion of the financial reserve fund of the ethnic
regions to help minority areas develop their economies and improve the
local people's livelihoods. According to statistics, in terms of the
above-mentioned three preferential policies, the state had offered 16.8
billion yuan of subsidies to minority areas by 1998. Since 1980, the
central financial authorities have adopted a quota subsidy system for the
five autonomous regions and the three provinces with large ethnic
minority populations--Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces. The
above-mentioned three preferential policies have also been included in
the quota subsidy system. From 1980 to 1998, the autonomous areas
received more than 140 billion yuan of quota subsidies from the central
financial authorities. In 1980, the state set up a fund to aid the
development of economically underdeveloped areas, of which a large part
was used in minority areas. In 1986 the state set up the help-the-poor
discount-interest loan and capital for providing employment as a form of
relief, of which a large proportion was used in minority areas. In 1994
China began to reform the ``revenue-sharing-scheme'' financial management
system. In the meantime, all the original subsidies and special financial
allocation policies for minority areas were preserved. With respect to
the transfer payment method for the transition period which China adopted
in 1995, the state specially added the policy-related transfer-payment
contents for the five autonomous regions, including Tibet, and the
autonomous prefectures in Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai and other provinces,
offering preferential policies to the ethnic minority areas. The
policy-related transfer-payment sum has constantly increase along with
the growth of the state's financial capacity. In 1998 the ordinary
transfer-payment sum by the central authorities to the five autonomous
regions and Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai provinces where ethnic minorities
are fairly concentrated was nearly 2.9 billion yuan, making up 48 percent
of the nation's total transfer-payment sum.
Encouraging the Development of Trade in Minority Areas and Guaranteeing
the Production of Articles Used by Minority Peoples
The state adopts preferential policies toward ethnic trade. For instance,
since 1963 it has adopted a threefold policy in this regard. This ensures
a portion of reserved profits, self-owned capital and price subsidies for
minority peoples. To respect the folkways, customs and religious beliefs
of ethnic minorities and satisfy their needs for special articles of
daily use, the state guarantees the production of more than 4,000
varieties of ethnic articles, which fall into 16 categories, such as
garments, shoes, hats, furniture, silks and satins, foodstuff, production
tools, handicrafts, ornaments and musical instruments. It has also
extended some preferential policies, such as setting up special
production bases, giving priority to the guarantee of production capital
and the supply of raw and processed materials, reduction of and exemption
from taxes, low-interest loans, transportation subsidies, etc.
Since 1991, in light of the new situation of reform and opening-up, the
state has made appropriate readjustments in the preferential policies
concerning ethnic trade and the production of ethnic articles for daily
use. During the Eighth Five-Year Plan period (1991-1995), the state
offered preferential treatment to commercial, supply and marketing and
pharmaceuticals enterprises and more than 2,300 designated enterprises
for producing ethnic articles for daily use in the 426 designated ethnic
trade counties in terms of credits, investment, taxation and the supply
of commodities, and offered special discount-interest loans for the
construction of an ethnic trade network, and the technological
transformation of designated enterprises for producing ethnic articles
for daily use. As part of a new package of preferential policies offered
for the same purpose by the state in June 1997, the People's Bank of
China will offer 100 million yuan in a discount-interest loan a year
during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000) for the construction
of an ethnic trade network and the technological transformation of the
designated enterprises for producing ethnic articles for daily use, and
the state-owned ethnic trade enterprises and grass-roots supply and
marketing cooperatives below the county level (excluding the county)
shall be exempt from value-added tax.
Helping Impoverished Minority Areas Get Rid of Poverty
Although the minority people's life has witnessed tremendous improvement
since the founding of the people's Republic of China, restricted by
geographical conditions, a low social development level, bad production
conditions, and lack of scientific, technological and cultural knowledge,
western China, where minority peoples live in concentrated communities,
is relatively backward as compared with the coastal areas in eastern
China. In some minority areas, production and living conditions are
fairly difficult, and the people's basic needs of some people are not
assured. Since the mid- 1980s, when China started a large-scale
help-the-poor drive in an organized and planned way, the state has always
attached importance to helping the minority peoples and minority areas
During the help-the-poor efforts in the past decade or so,
poverty-stricken minority areas have enjoyed the preferential
help-the-poor policy offered by the Chinese government to other
poverty-stricken areas, as well as a series of special policies
formulated by the state: (1) Expanding the sphere of aiding the minority
areas. In 1986, when identifying the most seriously poverty-stricken
counties for the first time, the state raised the national unified
standard for per capita subsidies in poverty-stricken counties from 150
yuan a year in 1985 to 200 yuan for ethnic minority autonomous counties,
and 300 yuan for pastoral areas and certain other counties in minority
areas. Of the 331 most seriously poverty-stricken counties designated at
that time, 141 were inhabited by minority peoples, making up 42.6 percent
of the total. At the start of the State Seven-Year Priority Poverty
Alleviation Program (a program designated to lift 80 million people out
of absolute poverty in a period of seven years from 1994 to 2000) in
1994, China readjusted the plan for the state's key poverty alleviation
counties, and decided that 592 counties be the state's key poverty
alleviation counties, of which 257 were ethnic minority counties, making
up 43.4 percent. (2) Giving priority to poverty-stricken ethnic minority
counties in terms of the distribution of help-the-poor capital and
materials. While distributing the help-the-poor capital and materials,
the Chinese government put the five autonomous regions on the same
footing as western China, placing them all on the priority list. Some
provinces and autonomous regions allocate special funds to help the
poverty-stricken ethnic minority counties while distributing the
help-the-poor funds. According to incomplete statistics, from 1996 to
1998 the state allocated 16.95 billion yuan from the Central Government's
help-the-poor funds to the 257 poverty-stricken ethnic minority counties,
making up 45 percent of the total. (3) Arranging special help-the-poor
funds for the poverty-stricken ethnic minority areas. Since 1983, the
Central Government has allocated a yearly 200 million yuan of special
funds for the agricultural construction of the arid ``three Xis'' (Dingxi
and Hexi prefectures in Gansu Province, and Xihaigu Prefecture in the
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), where ethnic minority people live in
concentrated communities; and it will continue to do so up to the year
2002. In 1990, the state set up the ``basic need fund for the
poverty-stricken ethnic minority areas,'' putting stress on helping the
143 poverty-stricken ethnic minority counties throughout the country. (4)
Actively conducting cooperation with international organizations in
poverty alleviation and development in the poverty-stricken ethnic
minority areas. Since 1995, the World Bank has implemented three phases
of a help-the-poor project in China, involving a total loan of 610
million US dollars, and covering 43 poverty-stricken ethnic minority
counties in Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places. (5)
Organizing the provinces and municipalities in east China to start
help-the-poor cooperation with the minority areas. In 1996 the Central
Government decided to organize nine developed coastal provinces and
municipalities and four cities with economic planning directly supervised
by the State Council to help 10 poverty-stricken provinces and autonomous
regions in western China. In the past three they have donated money and
materials valued at 1.04 billion yuan, and carried out 2,074 cooperation
projects, involving a total investment of nearly four billion yuan.
Thanks to the help-the-poor efforts in the last decade or so, the
production and living conditions of the people of the minority areas in
China have improved remarkably. From 1995 to 1998, 257 poverty-stricken
ethnic minority counties had solved the drinking water problem for 10.92
million people and 15.14 million head of livestock; the poverty-stricken
population of the five autonomous regions shrank from 8.35 million to
4.73 million; the poverty rate dropped from 12.4 percent to 6.9 percent;
and the net annual income per farmer in the poverty-stricken counties
increased from 833 yuan to 1,395 yuan. Meanwhile, the construction of
infrastructure facilities in minority areas has been further speeded up.
Between 1995 and 1998 about 667,000 ha of basic farmland were
constructed, newly built highways and rough roads extended 69,000 km, and
transmission and transformer lines totaled 117,000 km.
Implementing a More Lenient Childbirth Policy with Minority Peoples Than
with the Han People
To improve the quality of the ethnic minority population and accelerate
the economic and social development of the ethnic minority autonomous
areas, the people's congresses of these areas have formulated their own
family planning policies toward the ethnic minorities in light of the
spirit of the state's regulations concerning the need also for minority
peoples to practice family planning. These policies are more lenient than
those with the Han people. Under these policies, an ethnic minority
family generally may have two or three children; in frontier areas and
areas with adverse geographical conditions, families of ethnic minorities
with very small populations may have more than three children each; and
Tibetan farmers and herdsmen in the Tibet Autonomous Region may have as
many children as they like. As a result, ethnic minority populations have
been able to increase at a higher rate than the rest of the population.
The population of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang was 4.54 million,
according to the first national census, taken in 1953, and it increased
to 9.46 million in the fourth census, taken in 1990. By 1998, the total
population of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang was 10.4601 million,
accounting for 62 percent of the total population of the autonomous
region. In 1952, the Tibetan local government, headed by the 14th Dalai
Lama, reported to the Central Government that the population of Tibet was
one million. By the end of 1998, the population of Tibet had increased to
2.52 million, of which the increase of Tibetan population was 1.2
million. At present, the Tibetan population accounts for 94 percent of
the total population of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Helping the Minority Areas to Develop Education
Education among national minorities is an important part of the education
of China. The development of education among national minorities is of
paramount importance to the improvement of the quality of the minority
population and the promotion of economic and cultural development in
ethnic minority areas. In conformity with the needs of the modernization
drive and the policies of educational development, the state persists in
proceeding from the characteristics of minority peoples and the reality
of minority areas and gives active support and assistance to minority
peoples in their efforts for educational development.
The state has adopted many policies and measures to support the
development of education among minority peoples. For instance, it
respects the autonomous areas' right to develop ethnic education on their
own, attaches importance to teaching in minority languages and bilingual
teaching, strengthens the building of the ranks of minority teachers,
offers special care in terms of funds, runs ethnic institutes, schools
and classes that enroll students for future service in specific areas or
units, actively starts counterpart educational support between inland
provinces and municipalities and minority areas, and mobilizes the whole
nation to support education in Tibet.
The state has paid great attention to promoting universal compulsory
education in poverty-stricken areas, especially poverty-stricken ethnic
minority areas. In 1993, the relevant government departments proposed
that counterpart support and cooperation between the economically and
educationally advanced provinces and municipalities and the 143
poverty-stricken ethnic minority counties under government supervision
should be started, and defined the cooperative relations and the main
tasks of helping the poor through education. The Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of Finance jointly organized the implementation of the
state's compulsory education project for the poverty-stricken areas. In
accordance with the project's plan, between 1995 and 2000, the central
authorities will invest 3.9 billion yuan into this project, which will
exceed 10 billion yuan if the supporting capital to be contributed by
local authorities is added to it. The launching of this project will play
an important role in promoting the popularization of compulsory education
in poverty-stricken ethnic minority areas. The state encourages people to
help minority areas to develop basic education through the ``Hope
Project'' and other forms. For instance, the Western Hunan Tujia-Miao
Autonomous Prefecture has founded 136 Hope primary schools, thus enabling
tens of thousands of poverty-stricken minority children to attend to
school.
The state itself runs a number of ethnic institutes and schools. By the
end of 1998, the state had independently founded 12 ethnic universities
and institutes, 59 ethnic teachers' training schools, 158 ethnic
secondary vocational schools, 3,536 ethnic middle schools, and 20,906
ethnic primary schools. Ethnic institutions of higher learning, secondary
specialized schools and adult institutions of high learning and ordinary
higher educational institutions, conduct quite a number of preparatory
classes for minority peoples. In 1998, more than 80 institutions of
higher learning in China held such classes, with a planned enrollment of
7,142 students. Preparatory education has played a great role in
improving minority students' basic cultural knowledge, and enabling more
minority students to continue their studies at secondary and higher
specialized schools. It has become a unique way of developing education
geared to the needs of minority students.
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