Full Text: Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014 (10)

Cultural services keep growing. Ethnic-minority areas have improved their cultural public service system. A total of 104 radio stations and television stations in ethnic autonomous areas at provincial and municipal levels run 191radio programs, including 45 programs broadcast in ethnic-minority languages, and 215 TV programs, including 42 programs broadcast in ethnic-minority languages. There are more than 50,000 cultural institutions of various types in ethnic autonomous areas. The "Cultural Volunteers Going to Border Areas" activity has attracted about 10,000 volunteers, giving and running more than 1,200 performances, lectures and exhibitions in border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Training courses have been held on 7,000 occasions, and several million people have benefited. The projects "Digital Cultural Corridor in Border Areas" and "Tibetan, Qiang & Yi Cultural Corridor" have been carried out in border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, aiming to build a digital cultural service network with broad coverage and high effectiveness.

Respecting and safeguarding the right of ethnic minorities to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. The state takes concrete measures to ensure the legitimate use of ethnic-minority languages in the administrative and judicial sectors, news and publication, radio, film and television, culture and education, and other areas. China National Radio and local radio stations broadcast in 21 ethnic-minority languages on a daily basis. There are ten Tibetan-language magazines and 22 Tibetan-language newspapers in Tibet. Tibet People's Radio has 42 programs in Tibetan. Tibet TV Station has a Tibetan-language channel broadcasting 24 hours a day. Bilingual teaching is done in the classroom in more than 12,000 schools around the country. There are more than four million students receiving bilingual education, and over 200,000 bilingual teachers. Tibet has more than 400,000 students receiving bilingual education at the stage of compulsory education, accounting for 97 percent of the total.

Cultural relics and historic sites effectively preserved. China has further enhanced the preservation of intangible cultural heritage projects and their representative inheritors in ethnic-minority areas. Tibet has nearly 800 intangible cultural heritage projects. Tibetan opera and the Gesar Epic have been included in UNESCO' s Masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and 158 books have been put on the State List of Valuable Ancient Books. In 2014 the preservation and maintenance of the three key projects of the Potala Palace, Norbulingka and Sakya Monastery was completed, for which more than 380 million yuan was used. This is the largest project for the preservation and maintenance of cultural relics in Tibet, with the most funds from the central government, in which sci-tech means have been widely applied and the latest construction techniques have been used. "Silk Road: the Route Network of the Chang' an-Tianshan Corridor" has been designated as a new World Heritage Site by UNESCO, including the ruins of Beiting City and other five sites in Xinjiang.

Freedom of religious belief of ethnic minorities fully guaranteed. Currently there are 1,787 venues for religious activities of various types in Tibet, with 46,000 resident monks and nuns. Living Buddha reincarnation, as a special succession system of Tibetan Buddhism, is respected by the state. There are 358 living Buddhas in Tibet, of whom over 40 incarnated living Buddhas have been confirmed through traditional religious rituals and historical conventions. Under the special care of the government, all the monks and nuns in Tibet are covered by health insurance, pension insurance, basic living allowance and personal accident insurance. Tibet provides free physical examinations to monks and nuns annually. In accordance with the senior academic titles system of Tibetan Buddhism, by the end of 2014 a total of 110 monks had received senior academic titles and 84 had received intermediate academic titles. Ethnic minorities' religious classics have been protected and preserved. The country has provided 35 million yuan in the collating and publishing of the Chinese Tripitaka (Tibetan) over the past two decades. The Chinese Islamic Association has compiled and published Islamic scriptures in Arabic, including Sharhal-Aqeedah al-Tahawiyyah and Tafsir al-Jalalayn. The Association has also set up a website in the Uygur language, providing introduction of religious knowledge and online explanation of the scriptures to meet the religious needs of the people. In 2014 a total of 14,466 Chinese Muslims made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Relevant government departments strengthened the training of accompanying medical staff, and worked hard to improve medical care and epidemic prevention for pilgrimage groups to guarantee the pilgrims' health and safety. (mo