GENEVA: China has always attached high importance to promoting the comprehensive development in regions dominated by ethnic minorities, a Chinese official said here on Friday.

In China, it's an important constitutional principle to ban all forms of racial discrimination, and the government's policy is to protect all rights of ethnic minorities, said Duan Jielong, head of a Chinese delegation attending a UN review of China's record on eliminating racial discrimination.

The Chinese government has always tried to perfect related laws and taken many preferential measures for its ethnic minorities, Duan said.

He added that people of China's ethnic minorities have been able to enjoy the fruits of the reform and opening policy, and now all ethnic groups in China live in equality, solidarity and harmony.