Ethnic Groups
There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The Han
people form the largest, numbering 1.1 billion and
making up 93.3 percent of the country's population.
The other ethnic groups, that is the minority
nationalities, total 160 million, only 6.7 percent
of the Chinese nation.
Of the minority nationalities, 15 have over
a million people each; 13 over 100,000 each; 7 over
50,000 each; and 20 have fewer than 50,000 people
each.
The Han people live all over the country but
their compact communities are in the Huanghe,
Changjiang and Zhujiang valleys and the Songhua-Liaohe
Plain of the northeast. The minority nationalities
inhabit 60 percent of the country's total area, and
they live mainly in the border regions.
All nationalities in China are equal, as
stipulated by the Constitution of the People's
Republic of China, They take part in the
administration of state affairs as equals,
irrespective of their numbers or the size of areas
they inhabit. Every minority nationality is
represented in the National People's Congress, which
is the highest organ of state power of the People's
Republic of China.
National regional autonomy is practiced in
areas where the minority nationalities live in
compact communities. There are 5 national autonomous
and 75 autonomous counties (or banners in Inner
Mongolia). Local autonomous governments are
established and local affairs are administered by
the minorities themselves. All national autonomous
regions are inalienable parts of the People's
Republic of China.
At present, because of various historical
factors the minority nationality areas are less
developed than Han areas economically and
culturally. Over the last three decades, the Chinese
Government has adopted many policies and measures,
including the provision of manpower, financial and
technical support, to help develop these minority
nationality areas. Such help, of course, is a
two-way street, for minority nationality areas have
also contributed to the economic development of the
areas inhabited by the Han people.
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