Progress in China's Human Rights in 2013

People of ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang enjoy freedom of religious belief, and their customs and social mores are fully respected. In accordance with the Constitution and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region promulgated the Regulations on the Administration of Religious Affairs of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Interim Regulations on the Administration of Venues for Religious Activities of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Interim Regulations on the Administration of Religious Staff of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Interim Regulations on the Administration of Religious Activities of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and other government regulations, in an effort to protect normal religious activities and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of religious groups and religious believers. The religious believers from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang are entitled to conduct normal religious activities according to law in venues for such activities and in their homes, rights with which no one may interfere. Currently there are ten minority groups in Xinjiang that mostly believe in Islam, with a total population of around 13.7 million. There are 24,000 mosques with 290,000 staff members. In Xinjiang there are also 120,000 Buddhist believers, with 53 venues for activities and 326 staff members; about 60,000 Protestant followers and 374 clergymen; 6,000 Catholic followers, with 20 venues for activities and 25 priests; 1,000 Orthodox believers with three venues and two priests; and 300 Daoist believers with one venue for activities. Xinjiang has published and distributed the Koran, Sahih al-Bukhari, Tafsir al-Mizan, Selected Texts of Expostulation (a1-Wa 'z) and other religious classics and books in the Uygur, standard Chinese, Kazak and Kirgiz languages. The central government and governments at all levels of Xinjiang have developed a series of policies and regulations to ensure that the customs of ethnic minorities in food and drinks, clothing, festivals, marriages and funerals are respected and given consideration. Each year governments at all levels in Xinjiang make special arrangements for the production and supply of meat, non-staple food and other necessities for the daily life of ethnic minorities, ensuring the production and supply of special foods for these ethnic minorities, and lending special consideration to the ten groups dominated by Islamic believers. In Xinjiang, Moslems of all ethnic groups enjoy days off on the occasions of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

The cultural legacies of Tibet are effectively protected, and the local religion and traditional customs and social mores are respected. Currently Tibet has 4,277 sites of cultural relics. The Potala Palace, Norbulingka Summer Palace and Jokhang Temple have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List; Lhasa, Shigatse and Gyantse have been entered on the national list of historical and cultural cities; and the Tibet Museum is a first-rank national museum. Seventy-six items on China's national intangible cultural heritage list are located in Tibet, 323 at the autonomous regional level, 76 at the city level and 814 at the county level. There are 68 recognized successors to their own intangible heritages in Tibet at the national level and 227 at the autonomous regional level, and 117 Tibetan Opera troupes. The epic Gesar and Tibetan Opera were included on the list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009. The state actively protects and develops Tibetan medicine. Currently Tibet has 19 medical institutions that specialize in traditional Tibetan medicine, more than 50 county-level hospitals have a Tibetan medicine department, and the service network of Tibetan medicine has basically covered the whole region. The state respects the customs and social mores of the Tibetan people, and ensures that the ethnic communities of Tibet lead their lives in accordance with their traditional customs and engage in social activities in ways they prefer. The state respects the freedom of religious belief of all the people in Tibet, and ensures that they can practice their religions, conduct ceremonial activities, participate in major religious and folk festivals and engage in other normal activities of their own free will. Currently there are 1,787 venues for religious activities of various types in Tibet, with 46,000 resident monks and nuns, and 358 living Buddhas. Traditional religious activities, such as scripture study and debate, rank promotion, initiation, abhiseca (empowerment) and training, are conducted in an orderly manner, and traditional activities are held at major religious festivals. The living Buddha reincarnation system is a unique practice for the continuation of the living Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism, which is respected by the state. Since the Democratic Reform in Tibet in 1959, over 60 reincarnated living Buddhas have been certified and recognized by the State in accordance with historical conventions and following religious rituals. Many religious believers have sutra halls or small shrines set up in their homes, and they have the liberty to engage in religious activities such as turning prayer wheels, going on pilgrimages, and having monks and nuns perform religious rites. The Tibet Autonomous Region and all of its seven prefectures and cities have Buddhist associations, and the Tibet branch of the China Buddhist Association has a Buddhist academy and a sutra printing house, and publishes Tibetan Buddhism, a journal in the Tibetan language. Religious cultural items, such as murals, sculptures, statues, Thangka paintings, scriptures, ritual items and shrines in Buddhist temples, are protected and renovated when this is needed. Large quantities of religious literature and classics are rescued, sorted out and published. The traditional sutra printing houses of different temples are maintained and developed. Currently there are 60 major sutra printing houses, such as the ones at Muru Nyingba Monastery and the Potala Palace. They print a total of 63,000 titles of scriptures annually, and there are 20 private bookstalls selling scriptures in Tibet.

Ethnic minorities have the right to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. The State takes concrete measures to ensure the legitimate use of ethnic languages in the administrative and judicial sectors, news and publication, radio, film and television, culture and education, and other areas. Ethnic minority students can use their own languages in the college entrance examination. China National Radio and local radio stations broadcast in 21 ethnic languages on a daily basis, and the coverage of radio and television broadcasts in ethnic languages in border areas has further increased. The State promotes bilingual teaching in ethnic areas. By 2013 bilingual teaching was done in the classroom in more than 10,000 schools around the country, and 29 languages of 21 ethnic minority groups were used together with standard Chinese-Putonghua. China has 15 institutions of higher learning for ethnic minority students, with approximately 240,000 students on campus. The state continues the preferential policy toward ethnic minority students in college admissions by lowering the admission scores for or granting extra scores to them, and by granting priority admissions to these students when they are competing with Han students under the same conditions. Special consideration is also given to students from ethnic minority groups with small populations.

The learning and use of the Tibetan language is protected by law. Both the Tibetan language and standard Chinese are used in the decisions and regulations passed at the people's congresses at all levels in the Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as in the official documents and public notices issued by people's governments at all levels and their subordinate departments. In judicial litigation the Tibetan language is used during trials when there are Tibetan parties involved, and the legal instruments are written in Tibetan in such cases. Both Tibetan and standard Chinese appear in the official seals, credentials, forms, envelopes, letter paper, writing paper, insignias of different entities, and are used in the signs and plaques of government organs, factories and mines, schools, train stations, airports, stores, hotels, restaurants, theaters, tourism spots, stadiums and libraries, and on street nameplates and road signs. Tibet has 14 journals and ten newspapers published in the Tibetan language. The Tibet People's Radio Station runs 42 programs broadcast in Tibetan (including the Kangba dialect), broadcasting 21 hours of news programs in the Tibetan language and 18 hours of radio programs in the Kangba dialect on a daily basis. The Tibet Television Station Satellite Television broadcasts round-the-clock in Tibetan. In 2013 the Tibet Autonomous Region published 780 titles of books written in Tibetan, printing a total of 4.31 million copies. For many Tibetan-language users, reading, listening to and watching domestic and international news and getting other information through the Internet, mobile phones and other platforms compatible to the Tibetan language have become part of their daily life.

In Xinjiang, there are 13 ethnic groups who have lived there for generations, and they use ten different spoken and written languages. During the performance of official business, organs of the autonomous region and the autonomous prefectures and counties use both standard Chinese and the local ethnic languages. The languages of the ethnic minorities are also widely used in the press, publication, radio, film and television. The Xinjiang Daily is published in the Uygur, standard Chinese, Kazak and Mongolian languages; the Xinjiang Television Station broadcasts in the Uygur, standard Chinese, Kazak and Mongolian languages; and the Xinjiang People's Publishing House publishes in the Uygur, standard Chinese, Kazak, Mongolian, Kirgiz and Xibe languages. More than 70 percent of the books and audio-visual products published by publishing houses in Xinjiang are in local ethnic languages. In 2013 subtitles in ethnic languages were added to 100 films and 5,975 episodes of TV series, and four TV dramas were made with ethnic minority themes.