"Seeing hearty smiles on students' faces, you can tell from the cordiality of people from different ethnicities in China all the country's ethnic policies have achieved," said Boqing, a student of Mongolian ethnicity, pointing to a crowd of college students at a campus in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Of the central government's ethnic policies, the junior of the elite Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot said: "Our 56 ethnic groups are very much like brothers and sisters in a big family. It is natural and reasonable to show some sort of special care and give help to all those in need."

As Boqing acknowledges, the Chinese Government has spared no efforts to protect the rights and interests of ethnic minority groups by placing laws and policies of autonomy in regions inhabited by various ethnic groups, and people from varied ethnic groups have enjoyed preferences in education, employment and promotion.

With regard to family planning policies, an ethnic Mongolian native can have a second or even a third child, whereas the people of Daur, Ewenki and Oroqen ethnicities, which have relatively small populations, have no limits on the number of children they can have.

"China's policies toward its ethnic groups are aimed to improve the weak status quo of the people of Chinese ethnic minorities owing to historical reasons," said Sude Mide, a Ewenki native at the same university as Boqing.

The fifth national census showed that the average population grow-th rate of the 55 ethnic minority groups nationwide stood at 15.4 per cent in the 1990s, much higher than the average 9.5 per cent of the majority Han nationality.

"The concept for scientific development of the populations constitutes the basis for a nation's survival and existence," said Boqing, and China's policies toward eth-nicities are humane and people-first.

Currently, there are nearly 190,000 officials of Inner Mongolian ethnic origin, or more than a quarter of the total officials ranks across the region. The ratio far exceeds the 21 per cent share of the ethnic population against the regional total, according to statistics released the Ethnic and Foreign Affairs Committee of Inner Mongolia.

Bu Yin, a female student of Mongolian ethnicity from Northwestern China's Qinghai Province, said she feels she is on an equal footing with others whenever she talks with peers from other ethnic groups on the campus.

"I will never forget my national obligation, nor abandon my own language, culture and customs," acknowledged Bu. "I selected the Mongolian specialty for study, since I believe that a promising student in a Mongolian major can also find an ideal job."

"I feel very proud as a Mongolian native," she said with pride.

(China Daily January 18, 2005)