Citizens of all ethnic groups in China enjoy equal rights and special rights, says a white paper titled the Progress in China's Human Rights in 2009 on Sunday.

"The state guarantees by law ethnic minorities' equal rights in participation in the administration of state and regional affairs," says the white paper released by the Information Office of the State Council.

At present, all 55 ethnic-minority groups have their own deputies to the National People' Congress, or the national legislature, and members of the Chinese People' s Political Consultative Conference, the nation's political advisory body.

The head of an autonomous region, autonomous prefecture or autonomous county shall be a citizen of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned, says the white paper.

Statistics show by 2009 there were over 2.9 million ethnic-minority cadres in China, accounting for 7.4 percent of the nation's total number of cadres.

"Chinese government intensifies its support to the development of ethnic-minority areas, and the standard of living of ethnic minorities is steadily improving," says the document.

In the past year, China invested 1.24 billion yuan for the socioeconomic development of the areas inhabited by ethnic-minority people. Most of the exceptionally poor villages in ethnic-minority areas had access to roads, power supply, telephones, and radio and TV coverage.

"The education level of ethnic minorities keeps increasing," says the document.

By the end of 2009, some 686 out of 699 counties in ethnic autonomous areas had realized nine-year compulsory education and met the target of basically eradicating illiteracy among the young and middle-aged population. The other 13 counties have plans to reach these goals in 2010.

Public health care systems in ethnic-minority areas have picked up development speed. And the traditional cultures of ethnic minorities are protected and encouraged to develop.

Currently, the number of national key relic protection units in ethnic-minority areas has reached 366, and the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, the ancient city of Lijiang in Yunnan Province and other cultural sites have been included in the United Nations' world cultural heritage list.

"The ethnic minorities' rights to study, use and develop their own languages are protected," says the white paper.

At present, over 10,000 schools with a total of 6 million students use 29 languages of 21 ethnic groups in classroom teaching.