III. Rights of Ethnic Minorities, Women, Children, the Elderly and the Disabled

China will take further measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic minorities, women, children, elderly people and the disabled.

(1) Rights of ethnic minorities

China is a unified multi-ethnic country, where all ethnic groups are equal, and the state protects the lawful rights and interests of ethnic minorities.

- The right of ethnic minorities to participate in the management of state and social affairs on an equal footing is guaranteed by the state according to law. The state will make sure that minority groups have a proportionate number of representatives in organs of state power and administrative, judicial and procuratorate organs at both the central and local levels. Ethnic-minority citizens will enjoy favorable treatment when they apply to take the national civil service examinations.

- The state attaches importance to the training and utilization of talented people from ethnic minorities. Greater efforts are made to cultivate and select ethnic-minority personnel for Party and administrative work. The state supports areas inhabited by ethnic minorities in compact communities in their implementation of the national revitalization program for highly-skilled personnel and the support program for talented people in rural areas. The state will continue to train general medical practitioners and employ professional medical practitioners for rural areas in places where ethnic minorities live in compact communities on the state budget, and cultivate professionals of ethnic-minority medicine.

- The state guarantees that ethnic minorities enjoy equal right to public services. The state constantly strengthens the capacity of public services in ethnic autonomous areas. The gaps in the incomes of urban and rural residents, compulsory education, medical care, social security between ethnic-minority areas and the national average level will be significantly narrowed; existing problems in education, medical care, drinking water, communication, employment and other areas will be significantly alleviated; the production and living conditions of the farmers and herdsmen in pasturing areas, border areas, areas inhabited by ethnic minorities with small populations, and impoverished ethnic-minority areas will be improved significantly.

- The right of ethnic minorities to economic development is guaranteed. The state will implement policies and special programs for promoting the socio-economic development of the five autonomous regions, i.e. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet, and for supporting the development of other ethnic-minority regions, and work to make sure that the main indices of economic development for ethnic-minority regions are higher than those of the national average. The state will continue to formulate and implement special programs to support the development of minority ethnic groups with small populations, vitalize border areas and bring prosperity to their residents, and develop special undertakings of ethnic minorities and other programs. In major pastoral areas, the state will establish a subsidy and bonus mechanism for the protection of steppe ecosystem, guaranteeing that the income growth of herdsmen is not lower than that of the farmers in the same province (autonomous region). Vigorous efforts will be made to promote ethnic-minority trade and the production of ethnic consumer products, implement relevant preferential policies, and satisfy the special production and life needs of ethnic minorities. Emphasis will be put on the protection of the ecological environment in ethnic-minority regions.

- Education for ethnic minorities is to be promoted. The state will transfer more public education resources to ethnic-minority regions, quicken the development of preschool education, support the standardized construction of compulsory-education schools in border counties and poverty-stricken counties of ethnic autonomous areas, strengthen the construction of boarding schools in ethnic-minority regions, actively and steadily promote bilingual education, vigorously promote the development of vocational education, make greater efforts in the training and cultivation of teachers, and strengthen pair-up assistance in education.

- Cultural rights of ethnic minorities are guaranteed. The state will make greater efforts to protect the special cultures of ethnic-minority groups, strengthen the protection of their cultural relics, carry out emergency protection of endangered projects and representative inheritors who are aged or otherwise feeble, and implement overall protection for areas where intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities is concentrated. Traditional sports of ethnic minorities will also be given state support.

- Ethnic minorities' right to learn, use and develop their own spoken and written languages is guaranteed in accordance with the law. The state will promote the standardization and information processing of the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities, and build databases of China's endangered ethnic-minority languages.