Development in China’s Ethnic Minority Regions: Progress, Inadequacies and Solutions

WangYanzhong(王延中)andNingYafang(宁亚芳).......................................................................................

Abstract:

Since the dawn of the new era, significant progress has been made in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development of China’s ethnic minority regions under the strategy to “build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, deepen reform, implement the rule of law, and strengthen Party discipline.” Nevertheless, in order to fully satisfy the growing needs of people in ethnic minority regions, China must continuously promote endogenous development, rural income growth, skills training, urbanization, poverty reduction effectiveness, social governance and the common values of the Chinese nation, and address the issues related to imbalanced and insufficient development. In light of China’s goal to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects for people of all ethnic groups and regions, this paper raises policy recommendations to enhance skills training and vocational education, promote fair access to basic public services, enhance targeted poverty reduction in deeply poor regions, create a public cultural service system involving diverse stakeholders, increase the fairness of ethnic policy for people of different ethnic groups and regions, and balance the relationship between ecological protection and economic development in ethnic minority regions.

Keywords:

new era, ethnic minority regions, a moderately prosperous society in all respects, targeted poverty reduction, public services JEL Classification Codes: J15, J18 DOI:1 0.19602/j .chinaeconomist.2019.3.05

Ethnic work is an important aspect of China’s national governance under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. The CPC Central Committee has held important conferences on ethnic affairs, including the Central Work Conference on Xinjiang and the Central Ethnic Work Conference, and laid out a host of key strategies and policies for ensuring socioeconomic development, ethnic solidarity, social stability and long-term security in ethnic minority regions. These strategies and policies have proved to be effective. Over the past five years, the development capabilities and conditions of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority regions in China have achieved all-round, groundbreaking and fundamental improvements. Nevertheless, some issues of imbalanced and inadequate development remain and must be addressed in order for people of all ethnic groups to pursue a happy life and complete building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Differences of opinion still exist regarding China’s ethnic work and economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development in ethnic minority regions, particularly over specific measures and policies

on ethnic affairs. There are controversies surrounding preferential ethnic minority policies and measures. Such controversies have resulted from public reflections on the “Five Coexistences” explained by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Central Ethnic Work Conference, and a lack of understanding on the reality of development in ethnic minority regions and the thoughts of people from various ethnic groups. Based on first-hand information collected by 60 county survey groups, 10 thematic survey groups and questionnaire survey teams organized under the “Comprehensive Survey on the Socio-Economic Development in China’s Ethnic Minority Regions after the Dawn of the 21st Century” (“Comprehensive Survey”) project, this paper evaluates the achievements and challenges of economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development in China’s ethnic minority regions, and proposes measures and recommendations on what it takes for China to complete building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the new era.

1. Basic Facts of the “Comprehensive Survey” Questionnaire Data

This paper employs data from urban and rural household questionnaire surveys conducted in 56 counties and cities in 16 provinces in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 under the “Comprehensive Survey on the Socio-Economic Development in China’s Ethnic Minority Regions after the Dawn of the 21st Century” - a special project commissioned by the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) and a key innovation project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The survey subjects were selected through stratified random sampling. In survey cities, counties and districts, urban and rural communities surveyed were identified based on the different levels of urban and rural economic development (high, medium and low) and the distribution of ethnic populations. Then, specific samples of households (Wang, Ding, 2015) were selected in the identified communities or administrative villages according to the urban and rural categories of households to be surveyed as determined based on local urbanization rate. In each survey area, 400 to 500 questionnaires were distributed. Over the span of four years, a total of 21,813 valid household questionnaires were obtained, covering 52 ethnic groups. In 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, 6,536, 7,341, 4,732 and 3,204 valid questionnaires were collected respectively. This paper consolidates the survey data of four years into a mixed cross-section data set. Since the households sampled each year are completely random and different, data consolidation for descriptive statistics has statistical significance in terms of data structure and nature.

Close to three-fourths of respondents were ethnic minorities. Due to different levels of urbanization across regions, rural populations accounted for a greater share in ethnic minority regions. Ethnic minorities accounted for close to 80% of rural respondents, which was higher than the 19.4% for urban respondents. The age distribution of respondents also shows that the questionnaire sampling is consistent with the age distribution pattern of the overall population. Table 1 shows the basic facts of respondents.

2. Achievements in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects in Ethnic Minority Regions

In accordance with the statistical monitoring indicator system for completing the building of a

moderately prosperous society in all respects, we may evaluate the level of a moderately prosperous society in a certain region by 39 secondary indicators under five primary indicators of economic development, democracy and the rule of law, cultural development, people’s livelihood, and natural resources and the environment. Considering the questionnaire structure and the imbalanced and inadequate development facing ethnic minority regions, this paper selects such topics as employment, living standards and people’s confidence about building a moderately prosperous society, targeted poverty reduction and public services, protection of ethnic culture, ethnic policies, ethnic relations and ethnic identity, as well as ecological civilization. In this manner, this paper reveals the views of respondents in ethnic minority regions about the development of a moderately prosperous society in ethnic minority regions of the 2013-2016 period, as well as the achievements in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

2.1 Conditions of Economic Life

2.1.1 Family income

Since the dawn of the new era, China’s ethnic minority regions have maintained fairly rapid development, ranking among its fastest growing provinces and autonomous regions. Urban and rural household incomes and living standards in ethnic minority regions have substantially improved. Compared with national average, however, urban and rural household incomes in ethnic minority regions are still relatively low, and the incomes of ethnic minorities are even lower. According to questionnaire data, 41% of respondent households in ethnic minority regions still had per capita annual income below 5,000 yuan, which was only slightly above the national poverty line.

2.1.2 Living standards and confidence about completing the building of a moderately prosperous society

Overall, the living standards of most respondents have improved compared with five years ago. Eighty percent and 84% of ethnic Han and ethnic minorities have experienced improvements in their living standards, and only 7% and 5% of ethnic Han and ethnic minorities reported deterioration in their living standards. Eighty-five percent of rural ethnic minority respondents reported improvements in their living standards compared with five years ago, which is higher than the percentages of rural ethnic Han respondents and urban ethnic minority respondents. After the dawn of the new era, the confidence of respondents in ethnic minority regions about completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in their counties and cities by 2020 has increased, up from 79% in 2013 to almost 100% in 2016. In addition, the overall confidence of ethnic minority respondents is higher than ethnic Han’s.

2.1.3 Employment conditions

Since the dawn of the 21st century, the flow of labor across China has accelerated. This has led to a surge in the number of migrant workers and a fast-growing share of income from migrant work in rural household income. According to questionnaires, about 47% of respondents in ethnic minority regions not only engaged in agricultural work. In fact, 16% of respondents engaged in both agricultural and nonagricultural work. Nine percent of respondents mainly engaged in nonagricultural work while also doing farm work. Twenty-two percent of respondents only engaged in nonagricultural work. Compared with ethnic Han respondents, a smaller share of ethnic minority respondents engaged in nonagricultural work.

2.1.4 Voluntariness of urbanization

New-type urbanization is a strategic priority for the equalization of basic public services in China’s urban and rural regions. It is also an important way to promote coordinated development across different regions and between urban and rural areas, and expedite urbanization. Survey shows that 58% of

respondents were willing to reside in urban areas or cities. There were a slightly greater proportion of ethnic Han respondents than ethnic minority respondents who were willing to live in cities, i.e. 62% and 56% respectively. The main reason for respondents to live in cities is the convenience of life and access to jobs.

2.2 Targeted Poverty Reduction and Public Services

2.2.1 Targeted poverty reduction

As key target groups of poverty reduction in China, ethnic Han and ethnic minority households had insignificant differences in their participation in targeted poverty reduction programs. Judging by respondents’ participation in the listed programs, targeted poverty reduction has greatly improved access to water, electricity, roads, communications and other public infrastructures in poor regions with a high degree of public participation in ethnic minority regions. More than 80% of respondents expressed satisfaction about the policy to exempt tuition and miscellaneous fees, supply free textbooks, and grant living allowances for boarding students from poor families (“Two Exemptions, One Subsidy”), the project to extend radio and TV coverage to all villages, poverty reduction through expanding access to electric power and education, as well as road construction and renovation projects.

2.2.2 Basic public services

Since the dawn of the new era, China has improved public service penetration and quality in ethnic minority regions. Questionnaires show that the majority of surveyed households were able to access public services such as education, healthcare, public security, amenities, farmers’ market, public transit, communication and rural finance within a range of three kilometers. As far as the level of satisfaction is concerned, a greater proportion of urban respondents expressed satisfaction about public services than did rural respondents, and a greater proportion of ethnic Han respondents expressed satisfaction than did ethnic minority respondents.

2.2.3 Social security

Currently, China has created a complete social security system encompassing pension insurance for urban and rural residents, medical insurance for urban and rural residents, major disease insurance, urban and rural minimum subsistence protection, medical, educational, housing and temporary relief, allowance for elderly persons and benefits for women and children, which covers the entire life-cycle of urban and rural residents. The survey shows that a greater proportion of urban and rural respondents participated in medical insurance as compared with the proportion of those who participated in pension insurance. A smaller proportion of ethnic minority respondents participated in medical and pension insurance compared with ethnic Han respondents. However, a greater proportion of ethnic minority respondents felt satisfied about social insurance programs they participated than did ethnic Han respondents.

2.3 Protection of Ethnic Culture

The Chinese nation has created a splendid ethnic culture over the long course of history. The importance to protect China’s national and regional culture is increasingly recognized by the public. When asked about “what is your attitude in case of a conflict between the development of tourism resources and protection of your ethnic cultural heritage?” more than half (56%) of respondents agreed to the view that “traditional ethnic culture should be protected but cannot be excessively commercialized.” About 27% of respondents agreed that “priority should be given to developing the economy and raising modern living standards.” Seventeen percent of respondents expressed “hard to say.” The ethnic Han and ethnic minorities expressed consistent views on this question.

2.4 Ethnic Relations and Ethnic Identity

2.4.1 Status of ethnic relations

According to respondents’ comments on ethnic relations across different periods of time, compared with the pre-reform era, ethnic relations in China continuously improved during the period from reform and opening up in 1978 to the end of the 20th century and in the early 21st century. A growing percentage of respondents described ethnic relations in China as “good.” Ethnic minority respondents in Xinjiang and Tibet expressed more positive comments on ethnic relations in China during the three periods of time than did ethnic Han respondents. This implies that the March 14 Incident in Tibet in 2008 and the July 5 Incident in Xinjiang in 2009 did not affect the opinions of people of all ethnic groups on ethnic relations in China.

Compared with nationwide ethnic relations, respondents were more positive about local ethnic relations. In most regions, more ethnic minority respondents felt positive about local ethnic relations than did ethnic Han respondents.

2.4.2 Interethnic marriage

Interethnic marriage has always been regarded by Chinese and international scholars as a key indicator for observing ethnic relations. Questionnaires show that more interethnic marriages of children’s generation occurred than those of their parents’ generation. Overall, in about 40% of respondent households and their siblings’ there were interethnic marriages, while this ratio was 28% for their parents’ generation. In comparison with ethnic minority respondents, a slightly smaller proportion of people of ethnic Han respondents’ generation and their parents’ generation were married to spouses of other ethnic groups. In comparison with rural respondents, slightly higher proportions of people of urban respondents’ generation and their parents’ generation were married to people of other ethnic groups.

2.4.3 Ethnic identity

With respect to ethnic identity, about two thirds of respondents (67%) expressed that they would

identify themselves as “Chinese” and his/her “ethnic group” if asked by a foreigner about their ethnic identity. Seventeen percent of respondents believed that their Chinese and ethnic identities were equal and none was above the other. Ten percent of respondents identified themselves as his/her “ethnic group” and “Chinese”. With diversifying values, the identity of individuals and social groups is becoming increasingly complex. Self-identity and diverse identities represent growing trends. The questionnaires show that regarding the importance of citizen and ethnic identities, 57% of respondents ranked the two as equally important, and 21% of them believed that citizen identity was more important. As for the ranking of the importance of local identity and ethnic identity, 54% of respondents ranked the two as equally important, and 33% of respondents believed that their local identity was more important. The result shows that more than half of respondents considered ethnic identity, citizen identity and local identity as equally important. Proportions of Uygur and Tibetan respondents who considered their citizen identity and local identity as more important outweighed the proportion of those who considered ethnic identity as more important.

2.5 Ethnic Policies

2.5.1 Family planning policy

Over the years, China has implemented a differentiated family planning policy for ethnic minorities and ethnic minority regions. As a result of sufficient protection of the rights of ethnic minorities and ethnic Han families in ethnic minority regions to bear children, there was a rapid growth in the populations of all ethnic groups and a rapid improvement in population quality as well. Respondents expressed positive comments about China’s family planning policy for ethnic minority regions and ethnic minorities. While 66% of respondents believed that the family planning policy worked well, only 6% of respondents believed that the effect was poor, and 16% of respondents believed that the effect was ordinary. The number of ethnic minority respondents who recognized the policy effect as good was six percentage points higher than the number of ethnic Han respondents who shared the same view.

2.5.2 Comments on bonus points in college entrance examinations

Overall, three fourths of respondents in ethnic minority regions expressed satisfaction about the policy to grant bonus points to ethnic minority students in college entrance examinations. Seven percent expressed dissatisfaction, and 19% felt uncertain. Seventy- six percent and 68% of ethnic minority and ethnic Han respondents expressed satisfaction respectively. The proportion of rural ethnic Han respondents who expressed satisfaction was the lowest (66%), which was nine percentage points below the proportion of rural ethnic minority respondents who felt the same way. Seventy percent and 77% of urban ethnic Han and ethnic minority respondents expressed satisfaction respectively. Regarding whether children from ethnic minority families settled in cities should receive extra points in their college entrance examinations, there were still 62% of respondents who were supportive, and the proportion of ethnic minority respondents who believed that extra points should continue to be granted was nine percentage points higher than the proportion of ethnic Han respondents who shared the same view.

2.5.3 Policy on bilingual education

According to China’s law on the autonomy of the ethnic minority regions, ethnic minorities have the right to use ethnic languages. Meanwhile, the State promotes Mandarin to facilitate communication among people of all ethnic groups and carry out public service programs, and implements a bilingual education policy in ethnic minority regions to enhance Mandarin speaking and writing abilities among ethnic minorities. Overall, 45% of respondents considered the bilingual education policy as effective in

their localities, only 5% believed that the effect was poor, and 17% believed that the effect was ordinary. About one third (33%) of respondents were uncertain about the effectiveness of the bilingual education policy. The proportion of urban and rural ethnic minority respondents who believed that the bilingual education policy was effective is higher than the proportion of ethnic Han respondents who shared the same view. Unlike ethnic Han respondents, a higher proportion of younger ethnic minority respondents believed that the effect was good. Younger respondents had more positive views about the effectiveness of bilingual education policy.

2.6 Ecological Civilization

With rich natural and ecological resources, ethnic minority regions are identified as important ecological conservation areas. China has attached great importance and priority to regional development planning, poverty reduction and environmental management in ethnic minority regions. By promoting the concept that “lush mountains and clear water are precious assets,” China has enhanced ecological protection in ethnic minority regions. Overall, respondents expressed positive views on the effectiveness of ecological and environmental protection by local governments. Respondents who expressed positive views on the effectiveness of ecological protection measures and regulations of local governments accounted for the highest proportion, but their views on the handling of environmental violations by local governments were negative.

3. Challenges Facing the Building of a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects in the New Era

Overall, respondents in ethnic minority regions expressed positive views on the effects of China’s efforts in building in moderately prosperous society in all respects, and were fully confident about achieving this goal in the new era. But the comments from respondents also reflect the inadequacies that exist in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects; these include imbalanced and insufficient development in ethnic minority regions that impede the satisfaction of people’s needs for a better life in ethnic minority regions..

3.1 Lack of Endogenous Development

Since reform and opening-up, many ethnic minority regions have transitioned from reliance on external aids to endogenous development, but some remote ethnic minority regions are yet to complete this transition. One reason is that ethnic regions still lag behind national average and economically more developed regions when it comes to human capital. Take the population with technical secondary school, junior college education and above aged above six as a share in total population in 2014 for instance, this ratio was 10.9% for Inner Mongolia, 8% for Guangxi, 10.4% for Guizhou, 6.8% for Yunnan, 2.6% for Tibet and 10.7% for Ningxia, which were all below national average (11.5%) and far below Beijing’s (38.2%). 2 In addition, ethnic minority regions lack local R&D capabilities. In 2015, the eight ethnic minority regions were far below the average level of China’s eastern and western regions in terms of the number of R&D institutions run by large and medium-sized high-tech enterprises and the ratios of R&D personnel and R&D spending.

Third, the fragility of natural environment, such as frequent natural disasters, has inhibited endogenous development in ethnic minority regions. Natural disasters present more instability to industrial development in ethnic minority regions, and increase the cost of transaction for firms and households.

3.2 Difficulties Face the Income Growth of Rural Residents

As key targets of poverty reduction, ethnic minority regions are characterized by high poverty incidence, unreasonable industrial structure and poor development environment without a mature market-based economy. These drawbacks have led to insufficient and imbalanced income sources for urban and rural residents in ethnic minority regions. In 2015, rural household per capita disposable income in the eight ethnic minority provinces and regions was below national average level by different degrees, and income gaps between urban and rural residents were also wider than national average. Rural wage income in the eight ethnic minority provinces and regions as a share in household disposable income was also below national average, and agriculture operating income remained a major source of income. Notably, downward economic pressures, unreasonable industrial structure and the lack of jobs in ethnic minority regions have made it harder for rural residents in these regions to raise their income.

3.3 Lack of Skills Training

Policies to return farmland and pastures to forest and grassland and targeted poverty reduction programs all involve the transition or upgrade of the mode of production in localities of policy implementation. It is highly necessary for such programs to include effective skills training that are

important to long-term income growth and capacity building. However, the survey found that workingage household members involved in programs to return farmland and pastures to forest and grassland did not receive effective training in professional skills. Trainings that were carried out mainly focused on afforestation and grass planting. Targeted poverty reduction was carried out also without sufficient skills training, the consequences of which will play out over time. In pro-poor industrial development projects, most of the rural poor only engaged in the preliminary processing of raw materials, making it hard for them to foster sustainable livelihood and market risk resilience. In addition, more trainings should be carried out to promote modern production and management concepts among young adults.

3.4 Barriers to Urbanization in Ethnic Minority Regions

Urbanization rate is not high in ethnic minority regions. In 2015, except for Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, the rest six ethnic minority provinces and autonomous regions were all ranked at the bottom in China in terms of the share of urban population. Their rankings were also undesirable in terms of percentage of population with access to fuel gas, per capita road space and density of drainage culverts.

Barriers to urbanization in ethnic minority regions include: First, natural environment in ethnic minority regions is highly complex, which makes urban construction very costly. Second, industry development in ethnic minority regions is yet to create jobs that contribute to human capital. Third, the urban areas of ethnic minority regions are yet to deliver high- quality public service to attract local workforce to urbanize locally. Analysis of questionnaire data shows that the most important barrier facing respondents in seeking migrant jobs was the lack of access to job information and basic employment services.

3.5 Efficiency of Targeted Poverty Reduction Needs to Increase

Inefficiencies of poverty reduction in ethnic minority regions are manifested in the following aspects: First, the progress of poverty reduction is uneven on various fronts. While a major share of propoor investments went to infrastructure, not enough work has been carried out to improve labor skills.

Many poverty reduction projects have been carried out repetitively and in a misguided manner. Propoor industrial projects focus on the size without accurate analysis of market demand for agricultural products. Quality supervision and management for poverty reduction projects need improvement. In addition, the allocation of poverty reduction resources was uneven, which led to dissatisfaction among households not identified as beneficiaries. Finally, the misconduct of some village cadres and poverty reduction organizations have worsened existing structure and network of social relations.

3.6 Social Governance Weaknesses

China’s policy system has various overlapped objectives regarding regional development, ethnic work, social stability, poverty reduction, public services, border stability and national security. However, institutions responsible for implementing such policies are lacking, resulting in the poor effects of policy implementation. In 2015, for instance, the composite index of social services in the eight ethnic minority provinces and regions was below national average, and the total number of social workers and assistant social workers in these regions combined was smaller than Shanghai’s. While social organizations have limited service and social governance capabilities, the government often resorts to administrative means in regulating ethnic relations and maintaining regional stability. Social governance institutions and means must be boosted to keep pace with a fast-changing society where diverse stakeholders have different concerns. In addition, the rule of law developed relatively slowly in ethnic minority regions. The survey found that due to the lack of personnel like lawyers and teachers in border regions, local residents were unable to seek legal advice when faced with new forms of disputes that could not be settled in accordance with traditional religious and ethnic rules and customs.

3.7 Eco-Environmental Protection Requires Continued Efforts

Ethnic minority regions enjoy great potentials in achieving ecological civilization, but the task is daunting since a delicate balance has to be struck between environmental protection and economic development. To some extent, protecting the ecological and natural resources in ethnic minority regions means that socio-economic development has to slow down for a certain period of time. The 2016 questionnaire survey indicates that the environmental protection measures adopted by local governments were limited to certain aspects such as waste treatment - 79% of respondents said that local governments had implemented waste treatment projects. More than half of respondents said that local governments had increased public communication and returned farmland to forest. However, a smaller percentage of local governments have combatted air pollution and restricted polluting companies. According to the survey results, it is imperative for local governments in ethnic minority regions to enhance environmental policy implementation and integrate eco-environmental protection.

3.8 Common Values of the Chinese Nation Need to Be Strengthened

In protecting and promoting ethnic culture, the socialist core values should take a deep hold in people’s mind and guide their actions. Our survey found that many challenges face cultural development in ethnic regions. Long-term institutions and mechanisms must be created to ensure the protection of ethnic culture. In addition, public participation in basic public cultural services remains limited. According to questionnaire analysis, there is a relative shortage of basic public cultural facilities in grassroots communities of ethnic minority regions. Only about 40% of respondents indicated that their communities were equipped with cultural facilities and libraries. An even smaller percentage of respondents said that their local communities had news bulletins and cybercafes. Compared with the lack of basic cultural service supply, an even more serious problem is the lack of public participation. Except for public squares where people engage in cultural and fitness activities, only less than 20% of respondents used cultural activity rooms and libraries, and less than 10% of respondents used news bulletins and cybercafes.

4. Countermeasures for Ensuring the Success in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects in the New Era

As China enters into a new era, the socialist thought with Chinese characteristics for the new era has become the guiding ideology for the Communist Party of China (CPC) in leading the people to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society and achieve the Chinese dream for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Imbalanced and inadequate development continue to impede the fulfilment of people’s needs for a better life in ethnic minority regions. This highlights the importance to promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development with high quality and efficiency in ethnic minority regions, and thus achieve all-round development for people of all ethnic groups. Based on the questionnaire survey’s analysis result, this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations.

4.1 Giving Priority to Skills Training

Improving human capital is the key to enhancing the income-generating capabilities for urban and rural workforce in ethnic minority regions. Skills development will promote workforce employment in the long run, and should be embedded as part of poverty reduction through industry development. Skills training should be carried out for poor people and other people with labor capacity to upgrade and renew labor skills throughout the whole regions.

4.2 Enhancing Vocational Training and Education to Meet Local Needs

Vocational training should be carried out to train farmers, local industrial workers, service sector personnel, physicians, teachers, lawyers and talents of other professions. Trained professionals are the ones who will effectively implement public policy and social governance in ethnic minority regions. In the long run, talent training and education are essential to ensuring that the policy benefits can be shared indiscriminately among the people, and that poverty relief resources can be used efficiently in ethnic minority regions. Only in this manner will endogenous development be fostered and overall regional benefits be increased.

4.3 Strengthening the Equalization of Urban and Rural Basic Public Services

Ethnic solidarity and mutual assistance cannot be achieved without equal access to public services and fair development conditions between regions and between the countryside and cities. Investments should be made to promote entrepreneurship and employment services, education, healthcare, legal services, public security, finance and entertainment and leisure facilities, which lay the foundation for social governance. Notably, local cadres should be able to use ethnic languages in providing basic public services, so as to improve the reception of social services among the masses of all ethnic groups.

4.4 Expand Targeted Poverty Reduction in Deeply Poor Regions

Many parts of ethnic minority regions in western China are deeply poor regions targeted as core regions for poverty reduction in the new era. These poverty-stricken ethnic regions need support in terms of infrastructure and industrial development. Prior to completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, poverty relief resources should continue to be increased to support deeply poor regions. Meanwhile, priority should be given to improving the sustainable livelihood for the poor in deeply poor regions, and increase the efficiency in using poverty relief resources.

4.5 Creating a Public Cultural Service System with Diverse Entities

Various stakeholders must participate in protecting ethnic culture. The government should provide

more public cultural services to promote Chinese culture and socialist core values in ethnic minority regions. On the other hand, other stakeholders like enterprises, social organizations and public-interest organizations must also participate in cultural activities to increase cultural communication among ethnic groups.

4.6 Increasing the Fairness of Ethnic Policy

In accordance with the principles on ethnic work laid out at the Central Ethnic Work Conference in 2014, clauses of ethnic policy must be improved to narrow inequalities between ethnic groups. In particular, priority should be given to such policies as on bonus points in college entrance examinations and family planning that concern the immediate interests of people in ethnic minority regions. In regions with similar levels of socio-economic development, access to public services should be made fair.

4.7 Balancing the Relationship between Ecological Protection and Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Regions

Ecological protection legislation should be introduced as legal basis for balancing various relationships and enforcing the law. Ecological protection projects should accommodate the goals of ecological resources protection, industry development and job creation. The successes and experiences of the Saihanba afforestation community should be publicized as an example of how a long- term approach should be followed in protecting the ecological system. In addition, trainings should be carried out for households involved in the return of farmland or pastures to forest or grassland in order to restore their livelihood that yields economic return.