A Research Of The Governance Of Ethnic Townships

The governance of ethnic townships is an important part of national work and it is related to social stability, national unity and the process of building a harmonious society in ethnic minority areas, involving the problem of survival, stability and development for nearly 30 millions of minority people. With the further deepening of reform and opening up and deepening of the national administrative reform, the gradual development of the townships becomes different, and some surpasses the average level of the region, and some still has a great gap than the average of the region. Therefore, the ethnic townships can not be simply linked with poor and backward areas. What are the factors that restricting the current economic and social development? How to remove these constraints? How to promote the development of backward townships from the experience of rapid development of townships? All these topics are worth studying. The topic in this paper is put forward on the basis of the above issues.This study consists of two aspects: First, the achievements and experience of townships; second, the problems and countermeasures for the governance of ethnic townships. The author sums up the achievements of the governance of ethnic townships and draws out some management experience which is worth learning by way of case study, system analysis, comparative study and document analysis, based on the research of 4 townships in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.The achievements of the governance of ethnic townships reflect in the following: the political rights of minority people have been guaranteed; the economic development is rapid; the infrastructure is improving; the social cause has made great progress; the national culture and heritage is well protected; the village society is harmonious and stable. The experience of governing ethnic townships covers seeking supports from superior departments according to the national policy, promoting development with local characteristics, striving to expand the special industries relying on the characteristics of resources, seeking common prosperity and build a harmonious society relying on national unity. These experiences give acts as good examples to the development of similar areas in townships.The governance of ethnic townships has made some achievements, but still there exist many problems. From the perspective of economic and social development, in ethnic townships exist the problem that economic development is not enough; the infrastructure is relatively weak; the implementation of livelihood projects has a great gaps; the organization of lower government faces big challenges; the protection of national cultural heritage needs to be further strengthened. From the perspective of rural governance structures, on the one hand, the townships government is still a controlled government under a pressure-type administrative system and this no longer meets actual needs of building autonomous, service-oriented government; on the other hand, the rule of law in townships is inadequate; the cadres are of low quality; and the supervision by people need to be strengthened.The governance of ethnic townships is a systematic project. Both from a historical point of view or the reality of the situation, we must try to improve the governance of ethnic townships on the basis of perfecting the system of ethnic townships. The author, based on his analysis and reflections on the status quo in four townships in Enshi prefecture, tries to propose some ways to improve the governance of townships in the hope that to further promote the healthy governance and development of townships in a new era.The proposals are the followings: to raise the awareness of ethnic townships, to have rational division of counties (cities) and townships, to improve the dynamic mechanism of ethnic governance, to strengthen the legal systems in ethnic townships and to implement and strengthen the preferential policy in ethnic townships.