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China is a multiethnic country, having 56 ethnic groups. The Han is the
largest group, accounting for over 92 percent of the national total population,
while the remaining 55 ethnic groups, collectively called ethnic minorities,
comprise less than 8 percent. Of them, the Zhuang is the largest ethnic
minority group, with a population of more than 15 million, and the Lhoba
is the smallest, having a population of 2,000 or so. The Hans are distributed
all over China, though living in compact communities in the Yellow, Yangtze
and Pearl river valleys and in the Songhuajiang-Liaohe Plain. The ethnic
minorities inhabit 50-60 percent of the Chinese territory, despite their
small population. The Han people have their own spoken and written language,
which is also the national language of China, as well as one of the universally
used languages in the world. Hui and Manchu also use Han Chinese. The
remaining 53 ethnic groups normally use their own languages, 23 of which
have a written form. Over the ages, the Han people have established extensive
political and economic ties and cultural exchanges with various ethnic
minorities and they have formed an interdependent relationship for common
development.
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