Local legislative powers protect ethnic groups

Granting legislative powers to large cities has contributed to the protection of the She ethnic culture, said Lei Jinyu, on March 12 during a panel discussion of the Fujian delegation during the ongoing first session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) held in Beijing.

Lei is a deputy to the 13th NPC and the director of Houmenping village in Ningde, a city along the northeastern coast of Fujian province.

She said that Ningde issued a regulation pertaining to the protection of the She ethnic culture last May, which provided a strong legal foundation for protecting the endangered She ethnic traditions and promoting the development of a local cultural industry.

In accordance with the regulation, Ningde has set up a special fund for carrying out research on the protection of the She ethnic culture, publishing cultural classics and other related undertakings, Lei said.

Although relatively small in population size, the She ethnic group have their own culture encompassing art, language, customs and beliefs.

However, due to increased communication with the wider community, the culture, which is sustained and inherited mainly through oral and behavioral connections, is at risk of extinction.

Ningde is home to nearly 200,000 She residents, accounting for a quarter of the total population in China.

At its third session in 2015, the 12th NPC passed a motion to revise the law. The revised law grants local legislative powers to cities with subsidiary districts.

This means that in addition to the 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government and the 49 relatively large cities that already have local legislative powers prior to the revision of the law, another 274 administrative areas can now also enjoy these powers.

According to the report delivered by Zhang Dejiang, former chairman of the NPC Standing Committee last Sunday, over the past three years, the people’s congresses of cities and autonomous prefectures with newly granted local legislative powers have formulated 595 sets of local regulations.

Granting local legislative powers to cities with subsidiary districts is also among the amendments to China’s Constitution, which were adopted by the national legislature on March 11.

This article is reprinted from China.org.cn.