Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS October 20, 1997

[Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu Renkou Diaocha Yanjiu]

Chief editors: Zhang Tianlu, Huang Rongqing

No. 8 in the series China's Population in Transition and Development Published March 1996 by Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe.

Zhang Tianlu and Huang Rongqing are professors in the Institute of Population Economics of Beijing College of Economics.

This 400 page book summarizes population data on ten of China's largest minority groups, concludes with series of essays on problems of overly rapid population growth, living standards, analysis of population trends, and population growth and economic development. Page numbers refer to the first edition.

Analyses are largely based on 1990 census, although some of the data goes through 1992. The authors note that the population of many of the present minority areas stagnated for many decades or even centuries prior to 1949. They cite Zhang Tianlu's 1988 work on the Tibetan population which estimates the population of Tibet at the approximately one million mark in 1287, 1737 and 1951. The higher death rate on the high plateau combined with high infant mortality and marriage customs (such as one wife, multiple husbands) in keeping

population growth stagnant. After 1949, minority people were encouraged as a matter of state policy to increase their populations (p. 3 - 4) resulting in two peaks in minority population growth, one in the mid 1960s and the other beginning at the end of the 1970s.

China's minority populations are at different points in the demographic transition from high death rate, high birth rate to the low death rate (owing to greatly improved medical care and nutrition) and low birth rate characteristic of the developed countries. The authors note that China's ethnic Korean population was the first of all China's ethnic groups (including the majority Han) to make the transition to the modern low death rate, low birth rate low population growth pattern (pp. 5-6). The living standards of the Koreans of northeastern China still do not match those of the farmers of China's southeast coast. This seems to be, says author Zhang Tianlu, because the ethnic Koreans

'lived for a long time under a centrally planned economy that kept them from making best use of human talents and material resources.' (p. 7)

The literacy rates of China's minorities at the 1990 census varied widely. Below 50 percent literacy are the Tibetan, Yi, and Hani. Lowest is the Dongxiang minority at 17 percent. The Uighurs, Kazakh, Tibetans and Buyi are among the minorities with a birth rate over 3.5. Infant mortality rates over 65 per thousand include Tibetans, Uighurs, Yi, Buyi, Hani.