Freedom of religious beliefs honored in Xinjiang

In Xinjiang, political equality for the various ethnic groups is realized mainly through the system of ethnic regional autonomy. Under the unified leadership of the state, implementing ethnic regional autonomy in place where ethnic minorities live in compact communities to allow them to manage their own internal affairs is a basic policy for China to resolve ethnic problems; it is also an important political system of China. Founded in 1955, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is an ethnic autonomous area with the Uygurs as the principal body of the local population. Within the territory of the autonomous region, there also exist areas where other minorities live in compact communities. Thus, five autonomous prefectures for four ethnic groups - the Kazak, Hui, Kirgiz and Mongolian - have been established, in addition to six autonomous counties for five ethnic groups - the Kazak, Hui, Mongolian, Tajik and Xibe, and 43 ethnic townships. Xinjiang is the country's only autonomous region with autonomous areas at all three administrative levels (region, prefecture and county). When it comes to the composition of deputies to the people's congresses and the appointment of cadres, the region's autonomous organs at each level have adhered to the principles of equal participation and common management, so as to ensure that all peoples become masters of the country. In light of actual conditions, these organs shall formulate and implement autonomous laws, local laws, and decisions of legal force, to safeguard their rights of autonomy in accordance with the law. By the end of 2008, the people's congress of the autonomous region and its standing committee had altogether enacted 127 local laws and regulations, and approved 28 statutory resolutions and decisions, and approved 100 local laws and regulations formulated by Urumqi City and the governments of the various autonomous prefectures and counties.

The state and the autonomous region have always considered the selection, training and employment of cadres from among ethnic minorities to be a key to carrying out the policy of ethnic regional autonomy. A large number of outstanding cadres of minority origin have been trained and fostered by being sent out for study, receiving training, working at the grassroots level, or at different places through job exchanges or on rotation basis. In this way, the numbers of cadres have increased, their overall quality improved, ensuring corresponding percentages of such cadres at various levels and categories. The number of Xinjiang's cadres from minority ethnic groups was 46,000 in 1955, 67,000 in 1965, 93,000 in 1975, 202,000 in 1985, 272,000 in 1995, 340,000 in 2005 and 363,000 in 2008. The last figure accounts for 51.25% of the total number of cadres in Xinjiang. In today's Xinjiang, the heads of the autonomous region, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties, as well as the heads of the standing committees of local people's congresses, the presidents of the people's courts and the procurator-generals of the people's procuratorates at corresponding levels are citizens from the ethnic group(s) exercising regional autonomy in the areas concerned. An overwhelming number of the heads at the prefecture and city levels are citizens of ethnic minority origin.

The government of the autonomous region has adopted a variety of special policies and measures to implement and protect all its peoples' equal rights in political and social life. Promulgated in 1993 and revised in 2002, "Regulations for Work Concerning Spoken and Written Languages in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region" enshrines in legal form the equal rights of all peoples in terms of their own spoken and written languages, encouraging people to study the spoken and written languages of other ethnic groups. Enacted in 1996, "Measures Concerning Implementation of the PRC Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region" stipulates that all commodities produced and sold in the autonomous region should have both the relevant minority and Han Chinese languages written on their packaging and users' manuals; that business operators who have the Muslim phrase "halal" (qingzhen) or its symbol visible on their business premises or on food packaging or labeling, should be approved by ethnic affairs administrative departments of the people's government above the county level.