PRC Demographers on Mongols, Tibetans, Uighurs

Reading notes from Chistiane Reinhold, November 1997

China's Minority Populations: Surveys and Research
[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

Here are my notes on the first 100 pages covering the Mongol, Tibetan and Uighur minorities in China. You are welcome to reproduce or pass on these notes as you wish.

[I also put on the U.S. Embassy Beijing Environment, Science and Technology section web page at http://www.redfish.com/USEmbassy-China/sandt/sandt.htm in the section sources for study of ESfww.rT in the PRC.]

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.

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.

Ethnic Mongols

Mongolian minority (pp. 13 - 33 by Huang Rongqing)

The author of this section, Huang Rongqing, notes that the Mongols are a blending of several north Chinese ethnic groups. The Mongolian population grew sharply during the 1980s partially because many people who had not acknowledged their Mongolian ethnicity now want to be counted among the ethnic Mongol population. (p. 21) Family planning was implemented later among the ethnic Mongols than among the Han population. In the early 1970s, as family planning began among the Han, the Mongol fertility rate was about 6.0. The 1988 Family Planning regulations of the Inner Mongolian autonomous region called for two children for each couple with more allowed in thinly populated or pastoral regions. The 1990 census figures show that fertility among the ethnic Mongol population has declined to the level of the ethnic Han population. (p. 18 - 19) Higher education is well developed in Inner Mongolia but elementary education needs to be strengthened. (p. 27) The ethnic Mongolian population had only 18 percent illiterates in the over 15 population in 1990. (p. 28)

Tibet

Tibetans (pp. 34 - 68) (written by Ma Rong author of the 'Population of Tibet' published in December 1996)

At the time of the 1990 census, slightly less than half of China's Tibetan population lives in the Tibetan Autonomous Region: 45.7 percent (2.1 million people) lives in Tibet while 54.3 percent lived in the ten Tibetan autonomous districts or counties of the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan. In 1990 ethnic Tibetans comprised 95.5 percent of the population of the Tibetan autonomous region. Tibet with a surface area of over 1.2 million square kilometers is the largest region in China and occupies one-eighth of the country. The population density at 1.8 per square kilometer is the lowest in China. The 18 counties around Lhasa (of Tibet's total 72 counties) contained 34.8 percent of Tibet's population in 1990. (pp. 34 - 35). In 1990, only 11.5 percent of Tibet's population lived in cities or towns (chengzhen) .

Tibet's ethnic Tibetan and ethnic Han populations

In 1990, the population of the Tibetan autonomous region totaled 2.196 million, including 2.096 million ethnic Tibetans (95.6 percent) and 81,000 ethnic Han (3.7 percent), Menba and Geba minorities each 10,000 at 0.4 percent and 9000 people of other ethnic groups. In 1990, 50.0 percent of the ethnic Han lived in Lhasa (40,387) and 78.2 percent of the Han lived in Tibet's cities. The ethnic Han population outside Lhasa was concentrated in six counties which have an average Han population of 4.3 percent; the other 65 counties have an average ethnic Han population of 0.4 percent. (pp. 36 - 38)

Of the active ethnic Tibetan population, 84.4 percent were engaged in agriculture, forestry, herding or aquaculture in 1990, down from 89.1 percent in 1982. The proportion engaged in industry rose to 3.1 percent in 1990 from 1.9 percent in 1982. (pp. 41 - 42) .

Tibet's ethnic Han population

Between 1982 and 1990, the proportion of specialists in the resident Han population declined slightly from 25 percent to 18 percent while the proportion of merchants rose from 2.4 percent to 7.8 percent. Many ethnic Han are sent to Tibet by the government on three-year contracts. Between 1982 and 1990, the number of Han specialists in the fields of health and physical education fell by 660, educators fell by 1200, geological prospectors fell by 570 and workers fell by 400 people. The rapid increase in industry in Tibet from a small base gave new opportunities for Tibetan and ethnic Han merchants, accounting for the increase in the number of ethnic Han merchants in Tibet.

The increase in the proportion of the ethnic Han population engaged in agriculture, herding etc. rising from 2.3 percent to 3.4 percent reflects an increase of 7000 people. Since the contract system in agriculture had already begun in Tibet by the early 1980s, Han moving into Tibet or already in Tibet switching from some other occupation could not have been assigned farmland. The increase in the Han population involved in agriculture etc. must reflect 7000 people going to work in forests, farms, or ranches newly established or expanded by the government. (p. 46). Over the last several years, there have been ethnic Han farmers who have made contracts with local ethnic Tibetan people to grow produce for the Lhasa market. Most of the Han farmers who have gone to the Lhasa region on their own over the last few years are temporary residents who moved to Tibet on their own -- and it is not certain whether their presence has been fully recorded in the census of the Tibetan autonomous region. More research needs to be done on this kind of migration into Tibet. (p. 47)

Literacy

The proportion of ethnic Tibetans over age 15 in the Tibetan Autonomous Region recorded as illiterate or semi-literate in the 1990 census was 72.8 percent compared with the all China national average of 22.8 percent. (p. 51)

Weakness of Statistics -- statistical information is very incomplete for Tibetan because of the difficulty of gathering information in such a thinly populated area (especially from nomadic herders), the incompleteness of the reporting system, and the reluctance of ethnic Tibetans to report deaths in the family. (pp. 54 - 59). Statistics on migrations between Tibet and other provinces and between Tibet and neighboring countries are also difficult to obtain.

Tibetan Population Doubled So Massive Subsidies, Food Imports Required

Tibet is high, mountainous and cold; relatively little land is suitable for farming. In 1992, the Tibetan autonomous region had 3.36 million mu (225,000 hectares) of arable land or about 1.5 mu per person. One-third of this land is irrigated and food production per mu is only 455 jin (230 kg). According to a Chinese Academy of Sciences study, there is little unused land suitable for agriculture in Tibet, so increases in production depend upon improved agricultural techniques, not more land inputs. This in turn will require considerable new investment in the land and in the people to train them how to use better techniques.

Fifty Kilograms of Food Per Capita Sent to Tibet Each Year

The population of the Tibetan autonomous region grew from 1.27 million in 1953 to 2.25 million in 1992. The Chinese central government in order to meet the needs of this larger population sends in large quantities of food each year. Between 1985 and 1992, the central government send an average of 106,000 tons per year of foodstuffs to Tibet. On a per capita basis, this comes to 50 kg. for each of the 2 million inhabitants of the Tibetan autonomous region. In 1992, about 78 percent of the population was engaged in herding or agriculture etc. This means that although three-quarters of the population is engaged in agriculture and herding, they still must depend upon the central government to supply three months worth of food for them every year. If the Tibetan population continues to increase, the problem of the food supply will become even more acute. (p. 63)

Tibet does not have coal or oil. It is rich in hydropower potential, but this resource is very difficult to exploit. Energy costs are so high that during 1963 - 1988 income from industry was actually negative. Tibetan agriculture/herding is not self-sufficient; its industry loses money. (p. 63)

Tibet exports minerals and wood to other areas of China. Tibet imports food, manufactured goods (mostly goods needed for light industry), building materials, oil or about 150 kg. of products per Tibetan each year.

Transportation costs are so high for goods brought into Tibet, usually by truck, that the central government subsidizes the retail price to keep prices down to a reasonable level. The low productivity agriculture and chronic money-losing industry of Tibet depend upon central government subsidies to survive. In 1992, the central government subsidy for Tibet amounted to 644 RMB per Tibetan. Compare this with the Chinese national average per capita income of 630 RMB in that same year. (pp. 64 - 65) .

Since 1990, agriculture and herding in Tibet have been free of taxes. Free medical care, education, and improved living and health conditions in Tibetan cities and towns as a result of central government subsidies have made the cities and town more attractive to farmers. This has spurred urbanization.

Author Ma Rong offered these policy recommendations:

• Improve the quality of statistical work and especially statistics on birth, death and migration
• The difficult living environment of Tibet means that agriculture/herding and industry in Tibet must depend on large subsidies from the central government for a long time to come. Family planning is therefore needed to bring the increase in the Tibetan population should be brought under control. According to actual conditions and the willingness of the Tibetan people to accept such a policy, the 'family planning policy' already implemented in the cities and towns should be extended to the farm villages and pastoral regions. Health and pharmaceutical services should be extended at the same time in order to avoid incidents and allay the concerns of the people.
• Medical services should be improved to cut the death rate, improve the health of the people. Lower infant mortality will allay the concerns of the people about the health of their children.
• Foster development of ethnic handicraft industry, development of small towns, and tourism
• Strengthen control of statistics on and management of in-migration.. Be prepared to restrict in-migration when necessary. Owing to Tibet's small population, it has a limited capacity to absorb a large influx of people from the outside. Ethnic and religious considerations as well dictate that more research should be undertaken immediately on the floating population moving into Tibet. The question of in-migration to Tibet should be addressed with care. (p. 67)

Uighurs

Ethnic Uighurs by Yuan Xin (pp. 69 - 100)

According to the 1990 national census, the ethnic Uighur population of China totaled 7.207 million people. Thus the Uighurs are, following the Zhuang, the Hui, Manchurian (Man), and the Miao, are China's fifth largest minority ethnic group.

There is little historical data on the Uighur population. It seems likely that the Uighur population was about 250,000 in the late 18th century, to 650,000 in 1831, to 1.13 million in 1887. During the mid 19th century Xinjiang lost over 500,000 sq. km and a portion of its Uighur population as a result of an unequal treaty with Tsarist Russia. In 1908, the Uighur population reached 1.57 million and then by 1949 had reached 3.29 million. During the first half of the 20th Century Xinjiang's Uighur population enjoyed a population growth rate of twice the national average (1.82 percent vs. 0.80 percent) since remote Xinjiang was relatively undisturbed by the Chinese Civil War and the Japanese invasion. Two concentrations of Uighurs outside of Xinjiang, in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province and Shengchi County, Henan Province totaled one thousand population shortly after the founding of the PRC in 1949. At the founding of the PRC in 1949 over 99 percent of China's Uighur population lived in Xinjiang. (pp. 69 - 72)

According to the 1990 census, the ethnic Uighur population of 7.19 million comprised 47.45 percent of the total population of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Improved medical care and better economic development spurred a rapid increase of the ethnic minority population of Xinjiang beginning in the 1950s just as in other Chinese minority regions. Family planning has been implemented among the ethnic Uighur minority only in the last few years, much later than among the ethnic Han population. Family planning among the ethnic Uighurs of Xinjiang began in late 1988. (p. 74)

Age structure: The Uighur ethnic minority has the largest proportion of elderly and one of the largest proportion of young people of any of China's ethnic groups: this creates an especially large social and economic burden of supporting the young and the elderly. (pp. 74 - 75)

Gender structure: In 1964 the gender ratio was an abnormally high 115 males to 100 females. With social progress and the higher status of women, the gender ratio has fell to 105.1 by 1984 and 104.5 by 1990. Among the elderly population there is an unusual excess of males compared with females: a ratio of 160:100 in the 60 - 64 years of age cohort in 1990. The higher proportion of males seems the result of the lower social status of women, the heavy responsibilities of women at home, in the fields, and in taking care of herd animals. and the widespread custom of early marriage, having children early and having many children. For example, the 1990 census showed that the death rate for women in the 15 - 49 age cohort exceeded that of men.

Dropping death rate, Longer Lives

The sharp drop in the Uighur death rate is the result of better medical care, better nutrition and poverty alleviation and the basic elimination of contagious diseases long endemic to Xinjiang. The birth rate although declining is still high.... population growth is the result of the death rate coming down before the birth rate declines. As living standards rise the desired number of children has been dropping. In the 35 - 49 year cohort women want 5 - 6 children; in the 15 - 34 year cohort women want 3 - 4 children. Urban Uighur women want just 2 - 3 children. The desires of Uighur women are coming into basic alignment with the family planning regulations for the Uighur people. (pp. 77 - 78)

Early Marriage Common, Divorce Rate High, Large Families

The Uighur ethnic group has several distinctive characteristic in its marriage and family life:

• one husband, multiple wives. Sanctioned by the Islamic religion of the Uighurs, in conflict with the marriage law of the PRC. This practice is gradually disappearing.
• marriage must be within the Uighur ethnic religion and within the Islamic religion. Now marriage outside the ethnic group is gradually becoming accepted.
• early marriage is common but gradually becoming less prevalent. The implementation of the PRC marriage law in the Xingjiang Uighur Autonomous Region calls for a minimum age at marriage of 20 for men and 18 for women. Nonetheless, because of the strong influence of the Islamic religion regulations that males are adult at 12 and females at 9, early marriage is common. Despite 40 years of the PRC marriage law, the 1990 census recorded 7.58 percent of the 15 - 17 year cohort of females and 4.64 percent of the 15 - 19 age cohort of males as already married. This is much higher than the national average for these cohorts of 1.09 percent for females and 1.80 for males. (pp. 81 - 82)
• men are generally 5 - 10 years older than their wives at marriage with a 20 year gap not uncommon.
• high divorce rate and high remarriage rate. Early marriage arranged by parents results in mismatches not in accord with the physical maturity and personal wishes of the partners. Divorce is frequent, carries no social stigma. Parents do not interfere with the choice of subsequent spouse so this second marriage so there is much more freedom in making a second marriage. In 1990 the Uighur divorce rate at 5.25 percent per year was over seven times the PRC average. A study of marriages and divorces in Keping County, Xinjiang found that during 1980-1988 found 2797 marriages and 630 divorces or one divorce for every four marriages.
• nuclear family. Uighur children leave home and start their own household at marriage. (pp. 81 - 87)

Social Structure

• According to the 1990 census the proportion of illiterate and semi-literate people in the ethnic Uighur population was 26.58 percent compared with the national average of 22 percent.
• Agricultural sector accounted for 84.07 percent of the active population in 1990.
• Migration is becoming more common as the economy developed but most migration within Xinjiang rather than inter-regional. (pp. 87. 89)

Society, Economy and Environment

Xinjiang, in China's northwest, has a surface area of 1.66 square kilometers and occupies one-sixth of China's national territory. Xinjiang has long borders of 5400 km which touch on eight foreign countries. Xinjiang depends on oasis irrigation agriculture. Agriculture accounted for 34.1 percent of the regional economy in 1990.

In 1992, Xinjiang had 47.01 million mu (3.136 million hectares) of arable land or 3 mu per capita. Food production totaled 7.06 million tons or 225 kg. per person. Food production is in surplus. Xinjiang is one of China's top producers of cotton and grain. Xinjiang has 859 million mu (57.30 million hectares) of grassland, second only to Inner Mongolia and Tibet. Xinjiang's coal and oil reserves are the greatest in China. In 1992 Xinjiang farmers has an annual income of 740 RMB; city dwellers 1753 RMB.

Xinjiang is surrounded by mountains. It depends upon snow melt water from these mountains to irrigate its oases. Xinjiang's oases are isolated, separated from each other by large expanses of desert. Transportation is poor and expensive; as a result many regions are basically closed economies. In 1992, the average income of people in the Hotan region was 903 RMB and 1185 in Kashgar, respectively the lowest and third lowest per capita income of Xinjiang's regions. Nonetheless Hotan and Kashgar are rank second and third highest in Xinjiang in their population growth rate. Increasing populations in the oases has put great pressure on water resources, loss of vegetation on the fringes of the oases, accelerating desertification and grasslands deterioration. Of the 20 counties of Xinjiang in which the ethnic Uighur population comprises 90 percent or more of the population, 13 have been designated by the PRC government as key poverty alleviation counties. Many of these poor counties of southern Xinjiang are trapped in a vicious cycle of getting poorer and poorer but more and more children are born. pp. 90 - 92

Family Planning in ethnic Uighur areas

Family planning for the ethnic Uighur minority was merely voluntary until the family planning regulations of 1988 were promulgated by the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. These regulations called for a maximum of two (three under certain conditions) children for urban Uighurs and a maximum of three (four under certain conditions) children for rural Uighurs. The practice of family planning doubled to over half of the Uighur population between 1988 and 1992.

Author Yuan Xin draws conclusion and makes policy recommendations

• Relatively rapid population growth The ethnic Uighur population now increases at an annual rate of 2.41 percent. Minority population growth accounts for three-quarters of the population growth of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

• Poverty

  According to 1992 statistics, the per capita income of Kashgar 669 RMB, Hotan 453 RMB, and Kezhou 431 RMB are below the Xinjiang average of 740 RMB. Sixteen counties with ethnic Uighur populations of 90 percent or more are among the 27 poverty alleviation counties designated in Xinjiang for the Eighth Five Year Plan. The 2.98 million people of these poor counties account for 41 percent of the entire Uighur population of China. Poverty expresses itself in that the population and economic growth are not in sync; these counties are in a vicious cycle of poverty in which they get poorer and poorer as more and more children are born.

• Environmental problems

  The Xinjiang environment is fragile: over 90 percent of the land is mountain, hilly, desert, or semi-desert waste (gobi). Only 5 percent of Xinjiang's area supports human life so the population pressure on the oases is very high. Some oases have a population density of over 197 people per square kilometer. The area lost to the desertification has increased from 370,000 sq. kilometers to over 420,000 square kilometers. The advance of the desert has forced people to move upstream along the rivers. The location of the ruins of the ancient cities conquered by the desert and the location of human habitation today is a sign of the advance of desertification. Increasing population overloads the environment as plants and grasses which stabilize desert sands are uprooted. Excessive grazing on grasslands, uprooting of medicinal grasses and green plants all facilitate the advance of the desert. Over 50 percent of the irrigated land along the Kashgar river has become salinized; in some counties the proportion of salinized land exceeds 90 percent. In Hotan county, the land is sandy, there is much windblown sand, the soil is covered by a sandy layer, the land does not retain water well and the effectiveness of fertilizer is limited.

• Education backward

  The educational level of the ethnic Uighur people is relatively low. Among people age 15 and up, 26.58 percent were illiterate or semi-literate in 1990. There are some young illiterates produced because the local school is not big enough. In some households the parents are not healthy enough to earn a living so the children must begin work at a very early age. Since the beginning of the contract system, children have tended to quit school to earn additional income for their families. This problem is especially serious in Kashgar, Hotan and Kezhou. Some children have no support because their parents have divorced and remarried.

• Frequent divorce and remarriage

  This tends to increase number of children born since newly remarried people will want children. Increases money spent on marriage celebrations.

Yuan Xin's policy recommendations

• Unrealistic to expect any rapid improvement in this impoverished area because of its closed culture and economy, low productivity.

• Family planning must be stressed. To quote President Jiang Zemin (in 1992) If China is to develop, it must as it focuses on economic development, at the same time stress family planning. There must be no wavering on this point. As the socialist market economy is constructed the government must fulfill its function of controlling population growth. If we were simply to rely on the market to control population growth, China would be unable to achieve its family planning goals. This means that family planning work must be strengthened. A network of family planning services must be built throughout Xinjiang. Participants in family planning should be given insurance; the status of family planning worker should be raised.

  The author (Yuan Xin) notes that family planning work in Xinjiang is seriously deficient. Family planning among the Uighurs can only be successful if the family planning workers are themselves Uighurs. Without Uighur family planning workers, success is impossible. Uighur family planning workers must be trained. Economic resources for family planning must be assured. There must no longer be cases where clinics or hospitals refuse to do family planning related operations or even close down family planning clinics because of a lack of funds.

• Laws on family planning are needed. Family planning is part of the PRC Constitution yet there are few detailed laws on family planning for implementing national policy. Detailed laws on family planning make clear the duties of the citizen and give family planning workers the power to enforce the law.

• Work with Uighur society influentials such as religious leaders, village elders to promote family planning Nearly all Uighurs believe in Islam. The cooperation and influence of religious leaders, village leaders, and the elderly in implementing family planning policy is valuable. (pp. 93 - 100)