The People's Daily and Guangming Daily, mainstream Chinese newspapers, on Wednesday devoted two pages to highlighting the regional autonomy for the country's ethnic minorities and other Tibet-related issues.

"Regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is one of the country's basic political systems," Mou Benli, the deputy-director of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, told Guangming Daily.

He said the system could help maintain the country's unification and the equal status and rights of ethnic minorities. It would also help combine the general principles and policies of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government with the reality of the regions where ethnic minorities live.

Mou said it would help to combine the national development with the development of ethnic minorities.

In People's Daily background article of facts and figures about China's regional autonomy for ethnic minorities, it said by 2007, the country had established 155 ethnic autonomous areas, including five autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties. Among the country's 55 ethnic minorities, 44 have autonomous areas covering 75 percent of the total ethnic minority population.

According to People's Daily, after 61 years of regional autonomy system and 30 years of reform and opening-up, rapid economic and social progress had been made in the autonomous regions, accounting for 64 percent of the country's total area.

Guangming Daily reported China was to hold a free exhibition on Tibet's history at the Cultural Palace of the Nationalities from April 30 to July 27.

The exhibition, "Tibet of China: Past and Present," will feature two parts: the History of Tibet and Feudal Serfdom in Old Tibet, and New Tibet: Changing With Each Passing Day, the paper said.

People's Daily reported 30 people were sentenced on Tuesday afternoon for their involvement in the March 14 Lhasa riot.

Three were sentenced to life and the shortest jail term was three years, according to the Intermediate People's Court of Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, which passed down the sentences at an public court session which started on Tuesday morning.

The Lhasa violence left seven schools, five hospitals and 120 homes torched and 908 shops looted. Total damage was more than 244 million yuan (35 million U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2008)