China has long been a unified multi-national state. The Chinese nation is composed of 56 different nationalities. The majority of the Chinese are the Hans, who make up about 92 per cent of China's total population. The minority nationalities - so called because of their relatively smaller populations - differ greatly in size. They live mainly in western China; a small number live in the north and northeast and on islands of the southeastern coast, including Taiwan and Hainan Province.

At the time of liberation in 1949, the minority nationalities were in various stages of socio-economic development. They have since been enjoying equal political rights as the Hans, and have established regional autonomies to manage their own internal affairs in accordance with their ethic characteristics. Those organs of self-government now include five at the provincial level and many more at county levels.

With the envisaged shift of major economic construction efforts to the vast northwest around the turn of this century, accelerated development of culture, education, science and public health in many of the minority inhabited areas is increasingly becoming a matter of urgency.