Policy And Practice Research On Supporting The Development Of Ethnic Minorities With Small Populations

As a nation with a long development history and a great number of ethnic groups,China has so far possessed 28 ethnic minorities with small populations whose overall development levels are still backward in general due to historical and geographical factors,natural conditions,etc.Both the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have been paying high attention to the development of ethnic minorities with small populations in various fields for a long time.Into the new century,the Party Central Committee and local governments have promoted dedicated support policies successively for ethnic minorities with small populations.These regions have presented unprecedentedly favorable tendencies,whether at economic development level or at the level of overall social progress.Moreover,national unity and frontier defense consolidation,as well as social harmony are at unprecedented levels,all of these are major strategic achievements obtained by the Chinese Communist Party in the field of works on ethnic minorities.We must admit that the support toward ethnic minorities with small populations in seeking for long-term development is not only an arduous task but also requires persistence,and no slacking off is allowed.During the current process of formulating and executing support policies,the main existing problems can be concluded as follows: unbalanced development between infrastructure construction and cultural construction,lack of pertinency in the concrete policy implementation process,scientificity needs to be further improved and concrete problems existing in the field of funds management are to be resolved.During the later-stage process of formulating support policies and concretely implementing them,practical situations of all nationalities should be taken into consideration so that support policies can be more scientific,more enduring and more effective,thus helping ethnic minorities with small populations to realize common development and prosperity with other ethnic groups.First,the concept of ethnic minorities with small populations was defined in this paper.Their geographical distribution and overall social development conditions were then introduced,followed by summarization of the present support policies in China.Based on Marxist ethnic theory and “core-periphery” theory established by Hirschman as well as in-depth research and analysis of the sustainable development theory,the Drung Nationality was selected as the research object and the emphasis was laid on analyzing national support policies,policy practices,practical effects and lessons learned.The previously mentioned research results can provide a referential basis and experience for continuing to support the development of regions inhabited by ethnic minorities with small populations and helping them to realize the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society at a high speed in the future.