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Tibet is an area where the Tibetans
live in compact communities, with people of the Tibetan ethnic group making
up 95 percent of the total population of 2.44 million in the autonomous
region, and the people of the Han and other ethnic groups accounting for
only five percent. According to the Constitution of the People's Republic
of China, the state practices the ethnic regional autonomy system in Tibet,
which has been established as the Tibet Autonomous Region, and safeguards,
according to law, the political rights of the people of all ethnic groups
in Tibet to participate in administration of state and local affairs on
an equal basis, especially the Tibetan people's autonomous right to independently
administer local and ethnic affairs. Practicing ethnic regional autonomy
in areas where people of ethnic minorities live in compact communities
is a major political system of China and a basic policy of the Chinese
Government for solving problems relating to ethnic affairs.
In April 1956, the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region
was set up in accordance with the Central Government's decision. The Tibet
Autonomous Region was formally founded in 1965, with Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
as the first chairman of the Region. As the organs of self-government,
the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress and the Regional People's
Government exercise the power of autonomy according to law. In accordance
with the Chinese Constitution and the Law on Ethnic Regional Autonomy,
all areas entitled to ethnic regional autonomy enjoy the extensive rights
of autonomy, involving legislation, the use of local spoken and written
languages, the administration of personnel, the economy, finance, education
and culture, the management and development of natural resources, and
other aspects.
The Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress and its Standing Committee
-- the local organs of state power in Tibet -- fully exercise the power
of autonomy bestowed by the Constitution and law, and have actively formulated
laws and regulations appropriate to local ethnic and regional characteristics.
Between 1965 and 1992 more than 60 local laws and regulations were worked
out, such as the Rules of Procedure of the People's Congress of the Tibet
Autonomous Region and the Regulations on the Study, Use and Development
of the Tibetan Language in the Tibet Autonomous Region (for trial implementation).
In recent years the Region has formulated 23 local laws and regulations,
made 21 legal decisions, and cleared up or revised 23 laws and regulations
involving politics, the economy, culture, education, environmental protection
and other fields, including the Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region
on Environmental Protection, the Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region
on the Work of Town and Township People's Congresses and the Regulations
on Enhancing the Examination and Supervision of the Implementation of
the Laws and Regulations. In addition, rules for the implementation of
14 national laws and regulations conforming to the local features of Tibet
have been drawn up. The legislative and administrative organs of the Tibet
Autonomous Region have designated the Tibetan New Year, the Sholton and
other traditional festivals of the Tibetan ethnic group as the Region's
holidays, in addition to the official national holidays. In accordance
with the special natural and geographical conditions of Tibet, the autonomous
region has decreed a work week of no more than 35 hours, five hours less
than the official national work week for workers and staff. According
to statistics, the number of laws and regulations worked out since 1992
by the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region and its Standing
Committee to safeguard the interests of the Tibetan people in light of
the actual conditions in
Tibet exceeds the total formulated during the 12 years preceding 1992.
The chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional
People's Congress and the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region are
both citizens of the Tibetan ethnic group. Both the Chinese Constitution
and the Law on Ethnic Regional Autonomy specify that the chairmen or vice-chairmen
of the standing committees of the people's congresses of ethnic autonomous
areas shall be citizens of the ethnic group or groups exercising regional
autonomy in the area concerned. The chairman of an autonomous region,
the governor of an autonomous prefecture and the head of an autonomous
county shall be a citizen of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy
in the area concerned. Since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region
all the four chairmen of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress
of the Tibet Autonomous Region and five chairmen of the Region have been
Tibetan citizens. According to statistics, members of the Tibetan and
other ethnic minorities now account for 71.4 percent of the chairman and
vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the
Tibet Autonomous Region; for 80 percent of the members of the Standing
Committee of the Autonomous Regional People's Congress; and for 77.8 percent
of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the Tibet Autonomous Region. After
the election of members to succeeding governments at the township (town),
county, prefectural (city) and autonomous regional levels in 1993, members
of the Tibetan and other ethnic minorities accounted for 93.2 percent
of the component members of the organs of state power at these four levels,
respectively for 99.8 percent and 98.6 percent of the township (town)
and county heads elected, and respectively 96 percent and 89 percent of
the presidents of the people's courts and the procurators of the people's
procuratorates at the autonomous regional, prefectural (city) and county
levels.
Further progress has been made in the training and selection of cadres
of Tibetan and other ethnic minorities in Tibet since 1992. According
to 1996 statistics the number of cadres belonging to the Tibetan and other
ethnic minorities in Tibet had increased by 18.22 percent over the 1992
figure, making up 73.88 percent of the total and showing an increase of
4.48 percentage points over the figure for 1992.
Guaranteeing the study and use of the Tibetan language is an important
aspect of safeguarding the Tibetan people's right to autonomy and exercising
their right to participate in the administration of state and local affairs.
The Chinese Constitution specifies that all ethnic groups have the freedom
to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. China's Law
on Ethnic Regional Autonomy stipulates that in performing their functions,
the organs of self-government of every ethnic autonomous area, in accordance
with the regulations on the exercise of autonomy in those areas, employ
the spoken and written languages or languages in common use in the locality.
Accordingly, the Regulations on the Study, Use and Development of the
Tibetan Language (for trial implementation) adopted by the Tibet Autonomous
Regional People's Congress clearly specifies that both Tibetan and Chinese
should be used in the Tibet Autonomous Region, with precedence given to
the Tibetan language. The Tibetan language is the common language for
the whole autonomous region. The resolutions, laws, regulations and decrees
adopted by the people's congresses, and official documents and proclamations
issued by governments at all levels in the Region are in both Tibetan
and Chinese. In court cases involving Tibetans, the Tibetan language must
be used in hearing cases, and legal documents must be written in the Tibetan
language. Newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations also
use both Tibetan and Chinese languages. All signs and marks of government
institutions, streets, roads and public facilities are in both Tibetan
and Chinese scripts. Tibetan academic, cultural and art workers have the
right to write and publish their academic or artistic works in their own
language.
The implementation of the ethnic regional autonomy system has further
guaranteed the political rights of the Tibetan people, which is in marked
contrast to the situation in old Tibet.
Before the Democratic Reform of 1959 Tibet had long been a society languishing
under a system of feudal serfdom which intertwined politics with religion,
a society which was even darker than the European society of the Middle
Ages. The serfs and slaves, making up 95 percent of the total population
of Tibet, were completely deprived of personal freedom and political rights.
The serf owners considered serfs and slaves as their private property,
so they could trade and transfer them, present them as gifts, make them
mortgages for debts and exchange them. It was not until 1959 that the
13-Article Code and 16-Article Code, which had been practiced for several
hundred years in old Tibet, were abolished, by which codes the Tibetan
people were divided, in explicit terms, into three classes and nine ranks
and put on an unequal footing in legal status. The codes specified that
the lives of people of the highest rank of the upper class, such as a
prince, were literally worth their weight in gold, whereas the lives of
people of the lowest rank of the lower class, such as women, butchers,
hunters and craftsmen, were worth no more than the price of a straw rope.
The serf owners safeguarded the feudal serfdom with savage punishments;
they would frequently punish serfs and slaves by gouging out their eyes,
cutting off their ears, arms or legs, drowning them or inflicting other
terrible penalties.
Since the Democratic Reform abolished the feudal serf system, the Tibetan
people, like the people of all other ethnic groups throughout the country,
have become the masters of their state and society, and won the political
rights enjoyed by all citizens as stipulated in the Chinese Constitution
and law.
All citizens in Tibet who have reached the age of 18 have the right to
vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic group, race, sex, occupation,
family background, religious belief, education, property status or length
of residence. They elect their own deputies and exercise the power to
administer state and local affairs through the people's congresses elected
by them. According to statistics, in 1993 when the succeeding township,
county, prefectural (city) and autonomous regional people's congresses
were elected, Tibet had 1,311,085 voters, making up 98.6 percent of all
citizens at or above 18 years of age, 91.6 percent of whom participated
in the elections. In some places 100 percent of the voters took part in
the elections.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Constitution and Electoral Law clearly specify
that the National People's Congress, the highest organ of state power,
should include an appropriate number of ethnic minority deputies. The
Electoral Law contains special regulations to promote the election of
deputies from among ethnic minorities. For example, it stipulates that
where the total population of an ethnic minority in an area where that
ethnic minority lives in concentrated communities exceeds 30 percent of
the total local population, the number of people represented by each deputy
of that ethnic minority shall be equal to the number of people represented
by each of the other deputies to the local people's congress; and that
where the total population of an ethnic minority in such an area is less
than 15 percent of the total local population, the number of people represented
by each deputy of that ethnic minority may appropriately be less than
the number of people represented by each of the other deputies to the
local people's congress. The ethnic minorities, who make up 8 percent
of the total population in China, now account for well over 14 percent
of the total number of deputies to the National People's Congress. At
present, Tibet has 20 deputies to the Ninth National People's Congress,
80 percent of whom are from the Tibetan or other ethnic minorities. Though
the Moinba, Lhoba and other ethnic minorities in Tibet have small populations,
each of them has its own deputies to the National People's Congress as
well as to the people's congresses at all levels in Tibet. The Living
Buddha Phabala Geleg Namgyal is vice-chairman of the Standing Committee
of the Eighth National People's Congress.
Personages of all strata and all circles in Tibet also participate in
the administration and discussion of state affairs, and exercise their
democratic rights through attending the political consultative conferences
at all levels. Now a number of personages of ethnic minorities origin
and religious figures from Tibet are members of the National Committee
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) or its
Standing Committee, with Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme serving as vice-chairman
of the CPPCC National Committee. Since its founding in 1959, the CPPCC
Tibetan Committee has recruited large numbers of people of the Tibetan
and other ethnic minorities, as well as religious figures. Now several
hundred ethnic-minority people and religious figures are members of the
CPPCC Tibet Committee. Even some people who were nobles of the old Tibetan
government, such as Lhalu Tsewang Dorje and Domed Konchok Palmo, are currently
vice-chairmen of the Tibet Autonomous Region's Political Consultative
Conference. The legal codes of old Tibet stipulated: "Women are not to
be granted the right to discuss state affairs." This situation is now
no longer to be found in new Tibet. In 1996 female deputies to the Tibet
Autonomous Region People's Congress made up 20 percent of the total. Now
Tibet has 573 women cadres at or above the county level, and some Tibetan
female judges, procurators, police officers and lawyers for the first
time in Tibetan history.
Most staff members of the judiciary of the Tibet Autonomous Region are
Tibetans or members of local ethnic minorities. Strictly in accordance
with the Constitution and laws, the judicial departments of the Tibet
Autonomous Region protect the basic rights and freedoms, and other legal
rights and interests of the citizens of all ethnic groups in Tibet. They
also protect public property and the lawful private property of the citizens,
punish those law-breakers who endanger society, and maintain social order
according to law. Both the crime and imprisonment rates of the Tibet Autonomous
Region are lower than the nation's average. The legal rights of criminals
are protected by law, and those who belong to ethnic minorities or religious
sects are not discriminated against, but due consideration is given to
their lifestyles and customs. The government guarantees the provision
of food, clothing, shelter and articles of daily use for prison inmates.
Each prison in Tibet has separate dining facilities and diets for inmates
of different ethnic groups and provides for them zanba (roasted highland
barley flour), buttered tea, sweet tea, etc. every month. Each prison
has a clinic, and the number of prison doctors is higher than the nation's
average. Criminals enjoy rest days, holidays and traditional ethnic festivals,
in accordance with the state's unified regulations. Prisoners may see
visitors every month, may win a reduction of penalty or be released on
parole, and may be given various awards according to law.
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