Poverty being the key issue to tackle to ensure and improve the well-being of the people

Over the years, the state has adopted a series of policies and measures to relieve the poverty the ethnic minorities suffer. In the 1950s, the state provided free medical services to poor people of the ethnic minorities, granted them loans and farming tools, helped them set up schools and conducted social relief. In 1983, the State Council held a national meeting on production and livelihood in the minority areas, which decided to basically solve the problems of food and clothing, housing and drinking water within a short time. Since 1990 the state has set up a fund to assure the basic needs of people living in poverty-stricken minority areas, and 141 impoverished counties were listed as the first batch to gain this support. In 1994 the Seven-year Poverty Alleviation Program (a program designated to lift 80 million people out of absolute poverty in the seven years 1994-2000) was carried out, and, with the assistance threshold lowered, 116 more poverty-stricken minority counties were covered by state preferential policies. In 2001 the Outline of Rural Poverty-relief Development was implemented, with ten more minority counties included, and Tibet as special region covered. In 2005 the comprehensive development of poor minority villages became the focus of national poverty-relief efforts. In 2007 the state formulated the 11th Five-year Plan for the Development of the Ethnic Minorities, containing 11 key projects. In 2009 the state announced new standards for poverty-relief work, and expanded the coverage to low-income rural people in the minority areas. Other efforts include: providing work as a form of relief, relocating people from places with poor conditions, building settlements for formerly nomadic people, repairing dangerous housing for rural residents, supplying safe drinking water in rural areas, and providing minimum living allowances to rural and urban residents. Thanks to continuous efforts in these endeavors, the impoverished population in the minority areas shrank from some 40 million in 1985 to 7.7 million in 2008.

Because of differences in history, culture, customs and religion, some ethnic minorities have special needs. For instance, the Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur and Kazak herdsmen need saddles, riding boots and brick tea, and the Muslims have their own special needs for Halal foods. To show respect for minority cultures and satisfy these special needs, the state has worked out preferential policies for the production of and trade in these items. In 1963 the state introduced preferential policies for ethnic-minority enterprises regarding profit retention, self-owned funds and price subsidies. In 1997 it enacted new preferential policies, set up special loans with discounted interest and exempted some enterprises from paying added value tax, benefiting 1,760 designated producers of special commodities needed by the ethnic minorities. In 1991 a mechanism for national brick-tea reserves was established to guarantee the supply of brick tea. In 2007 the state established a fund to ensure the production and promotion of the special commodities needed by the ethnic minorities, as well as related personnel training.

Priority is also given by the state to improving medical and health care for the ethnic minorities and in the minority areas. The level of medical services in minority urban areas has been remarkably enhanced, the medical conditions in agricultural and pastoral areas have been noticeably improved, the difficulty of the ethnic minorities in getting adequate medical service has been alleviated, and the health of the ethnic minorities been improved considerably. Since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policies, the state has built or renovated township hospitals, and county-level epidemic-prevention stations and health centers for women and children, thus greatly improving the health-care services in the minority areas. More than 80 percent of the counties in Tibet now have epidemic-prevention stations. The state is making continuous efforts to prevent and treat endemic and epidemic diseases in the minority areas, and the once-prevalent Keshan disease, tuberculosis and Kaschin-Beck disease have been basically put under control. Through various channels, the state has trained health care workers for the ethnic minorities, and expanded the contingent of medical professionals. In Xinjiang one third of all medical workers are from ethnic minorities.