How does the Chinese Communist Party govern the country?

Chapter 19

At 2011:6 on June 1, 21, at the foot of the Altai Mountains in northern Xinjiang, a passenger train slowly started, and the Kuibei (Kuitun-Beitun) Railway was officially opened to traffic.The history of no railways in large areas of northern Xinjiang has since come to an end, and the development of Xinjiang has further accelerated.

Kuibei Railway is an important one among the six railways under construction in Xinjiang.At present, Xinjiang's railway construction has entered a golden age, with unprecedented speed and scale.The rapid development of the railway network on the land of Xinjiang is the epitome of Xinjiang's leapfrog development and long-term stability.

Not only in Xinjiang, but also in the past 60 years since the founding of New China, especially in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, from the Yarlung Zangbo River to the foot of Changbai Mountain, from the Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest to the Hulunbuir prairie, under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government's ethnic policy, China's ethnic minority autonomous regions have Wide-ranging and profound changes have taken place.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the productivity level of most ethnic minority areas was extremely low, the economic and social development was quite backward, and the infrastructure was poor.According to statistics, in 1949, among the more than 3600 million ethnic minority population in China, about 100 million lived in a slavery economy, and about 80 lived in a primitive commune society.At that time, there was no railway in Xinjiang, and there was no road in Tibet. Some ethnic minorities in the mountainous areas of Yunnan traveled or transported by caravans, elephants, and ziplines.The ethnic minorities are mainly engaged in traditional agriculture and animal husbandry. Some areas are still in the primitive state of "slash-and-burn farming". Iron tools have not been widely used in some areas, and wood and stone tools are still used in some places.The life of the ethnic minorities is very difficult, especially the ethnic minorities in the vast mountainous and desert areas. They generally lack food and clothing. Almost every year, they have no food for several months.The development of ethnic minorities has been severely hindered, and some ethnic groups are even on the verge of extinction. At the beginning of the founding of New China, there were only more than 300 Hezhen ethnic groups.

"Ethnic regional autonomy is implemented, and if the economy is not improved, that autonomy will be empty." Deng Xiaoping's words can be said to hit the nail on the head.Ultimately, the solution to the ethnic issue depends on development.

Advanced institutional arrangements and backward economic foundation are the contradictions that China needs to focus on when implementing regional ethnic autonomy.

In 2000, at the beginning of a new century, the Chinese government launched a major strategy - the Western Development.Foreign media have seen the determination and courage of the Chinese government to accelerate the economic and social development of the western region from the macro deployment of this strategy, calling it "the largest economic plan since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy"2.The scale of this economic plan is indeed very large. At present, 5 autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures, and 120 autonomous counties are all included in the scope of the western development or enjoy the preferential policies of the western development.

The Western Development is only a part of the Chinese government's strategic plan for developing ethnic areas.In order to support the economic and social development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have continuously put forward work guidelines and made strategic arrangements in light of the actual development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas, and supported ethnic minorities and ethnic minorities from various aspects such as policies, funds, talents, and technology. Development of ethnic areas.During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period alone, 14 policy documents were issued successively.

A series of powerful supporting policies and preferential measures have pushed the development of ethnic minority areas onto the fast track: by the end of 2009, the total mileage of roads in ethnic minority areas had reached 88 kilometers, and the proportion of townships connected to roads had reached 98%. The proportion of road access reached 88%; as of 2010, the GDP of ethnic minority areas increased from 1978 billion yuan in 324 to 41892 billion yuan, and the per capita GDP increased from 1978 yuan in 248 to 21730 yuan; during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, The GDP and fiscal revenue of ethnic minority areas are growing at an average annual double-digit rate, which is higher than the national average growth rate.

Culture is an important feature of a nation and an important source of national vitality, creativity and cohesion.Minority culture is an important part of Chinese culture and the common spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation.While promoting economic and social development in ethnic minority areas, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have made great efforts to protect and develop ethnic minority cultures.

Tse Sukhbaatar, Mongolian Ambassador to China, has lived and worked in China for many years and visited many places in China.One day, he came to the Hulunbuir League in Inner Mongolia, where he was "impressed the most": "There is a Mongolian minority living there. The population of this minority is very small. I am also from this nationality, but I Born in Mongolia. I met people of this ethnic group in the Hulunbuir League. There are only about seven to eight thousand people, but they have their own schools and theaters in the village. I am very happy to see the children there singing the songs of their own ethnic group. Songs, dances of their own nation, and receive education in their own language."

A minority with only 8000 people has preserved its national culture very well. In China, this is not surprising, because this is generally the case among ethnic minorities in China.After the founding of New China, the state helped more than a dozen ethnic minorities improve or create writing.At present, more than 60% of China's ethnic minorities use their own languages. Important meetings such as the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference provide documents and documents in Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Kazakh, Korean, Yi, Zhuang and other ethnic languages. Acoustic interpretation.In addition to Chinese characters, the main currency of the Chinese renminbi also uses Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Zhuang languages ​​of four ethnic minorities.

The development of education is the key to social development.In order to improve the education level in ethnic minority areas, in recent years, the state has successively implemented projects such as the compulsory education project in impoverished areas, the renovation project of dilapidated houses in rural primary and middle schools, the basic popularization of nine-year compulsory education in the western region, and the plan to basically eradicate illiteracy among young and middle-aged people.The central government has successively invested more than 290 billion yuan to improve the conditions for running schools in ethnic minority areas. Since 2004, the rural areas in the west have implemented the policy of waiving miscellaneous fees, providing free textbooks and subsidizing the living of boarding students. Since 2006, the western region has taken the lead in implementing compulsory education in rural areas. Funding guarantee mechanism reform.By the end of 2008, there were 2199.6 million students from ethnic minorities in various schools at all levels in China.There are 674 counties in ethnic minority areas that have basically achieved the goal of universalizing nine-year compulsory education and basically eradicating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people, accounting for 96.6% of the total.At present, 55 ethnic minorities have their own college students, and the average number of college students per [-] people of more than a dozen ethnic minorities such as Uyghur, Hui, North Korea, and Naxi has exceeded the national average.

The status of ethnic cadres is an important indicator to measure the development level of a nation.The state has always attached great importance to the training and selection of ethnic minority cadres, and has formulated a series of regulations for this purpose:

Among the members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, there should be an appropriate number of representatives of ethnic minorities; the chairmen of autonomous regions, governors of autonomous prefectures, and county heads of autonomous counties should be citizens of the ethnic groups exercising regional autonomy; , should be reasonably staffed with personnel from ethnic groups exercising regional autonomy and other ethnic minorities; when recruiting civil servants in ethnic autonomous areas, appropriate consideration should be given to candidates from ethnic minorities.In order to train a large number of cadres of ethnic minorities, the state has specially established colleges for ethnic minorities to train cadres of ethnic minorities.

Through unremitting efforts, a large number of ethnic minority cadres have grown up.At present, ethnic minorities account for 9.6% of civil servants across the country, among which cadres from ethnic minorities above the county level account for 7.7% of the total number of cadres at the same level; among the 13 current vice chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, 2 are from ethnic minorities; Among the 9 current vice premiers and state councilors of the State Council, there are 2 ethnic minorities; among the 25 current vice chairmen of the CPPCC National Committee, there are 5 ethnic minorities.

The well-known American futurist John Naisbitt comprehensively described the vicissitudes of life in Tibet in the past few decades in his book "China's Megatrends", thus providing people with a specific case of the development of China's ethnic minority areas.He wrote: "In 1959, there were only a little over 100 million Tibetans living in Tibet under the rule of feudal serfdom. Now the population of Tibet has risen to more than 400 million. Before 1950, the largest number of Tibetans were serfs (90 %), while feudal nobles and monks were the rulers. All monasteries had a lot of land and real estate. Serfs did not have any personal freedom from birth to death. At that time, the average life expectancy of Tibetans was only 36 years. Life expectancy has risen to 1950 years. Tibet’s economy has also maintained rapid growth, with an economic growth rate of 65% in 2007. …Tibetans enjoy many privileges. In China, the key to getting rich lies in education. In the past, education was the responsibility of monks and The privilege enjoyed by nobles, now all Tibetans can receive education. And their college entrance examination scores can be admitted to first-class universities as long as their college entrance examination scores are half of those in other regions. Tibetans can have 14 children and still enjoy the benefits provided by the state .In the past, they had nothing. And the Han people are still restricted by the one-child policy. The National People's Congress also set aside certain seats for Tibet, and from the 3s, the Chinese Communist Party paid more attention to selecting locals from Tibetans. Cadres.... On January 20, 80, the Tibet Autonomous Region raised the minimum wage standard established three years ago. The minimum wage standard in Tibet is higher than the national average, and only slightly lower than Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.  … In 2008, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province focused on improving the health status of farmers and herdsmen, and established a three-level medical network in counties and villages. In 1, 1 township hospitals and 2008 village clinics were completed, covering All regions of the autonomous prefecture. According to the latest statistics, the number of farmers and herdsmen participating in medical insurance has exceeded 37. So far, a total of 252 farmers and herdsmen have received more than 293000 billion yuan (285000 million US dollars) in medical insurance premiums. "

The development achievements of China's ethnic minority areas have drawn the world's attention to China's ethnic policies.At the No.2009 Congress of the International Union of Anthropology and Ethnology in July 7, Dr. Elena Marushiakova of the Institute of Anthropology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences praised, "China's ethnic policy is very active, and its achievements It is impressive, and some of the practices of supporting the development of ethnic minorities are of great reference value in multi-ethnic countries."Yuan Ye, international project coordinator of the UNESCO Beijing Office who has lived in China for many years, has a deeper understanding of the relationship between the development of China's ethnic regions and China's ethnic regional autonomy system, because "China's ethnic regional autonomy system has given local people With more autonomy, they can participate more deeply and broadly in local development decisions.”

Over the past 60 years since the implementation of the system of regional ethnic autonomy, no major ethnic contradictions and conflicts have occurred in China, which strongly proves the success of this system.But at the same time, it should also be noted that this system also has some deficiencies, such as the unclear administrative powers of the central government and ethnic autonomous areas, the regulations on local autonomy are not detailed enough, it is not easy to operate, and the self-government law lacks supporting regulations, etc. .These deficiencies have affected the full play of the superiority of this system to a certain extent, and it needs to be constantly adjusted and improved according to the development of the situation.

(End of this chapter)