Sichuan Province Township Development Research

Ethnic townships, enjoying a significant position in our ethnic work, refer to the stateregime that builds in minorities settlements which is equivalent to township. It is an uniqueand special primary level regime form in China, meaning that the majorities manage their owninternal affairs and enjoy their rights of being masters legally, a political form to solving theethnic issues in China, and a necessary supplement to the system of ethnic regional autonomy.Therefore, both in content and form, the minorities in the ethnic townships are different fromthose settled scatteredly in rural and urban areas and those settled in the implemented regionalethnic autonomous areas. The difference with the common rural inhabiting scatteredminorities is that the ethnic townships is the settlement for the minorities, with a settledpopulation of no less than30%of the total population in the entire town and enjoyingautonomous right endowed by the laws, regulations and policies; the difference with the urbaninhabiting scattered minorities is that the ethnic townships is township administrative regionof the minorities settled in town; the difference with ethnic regional autonomous place is thatthe settled scope or scale in the ethnic townships is substandard to that in place buildingethnic regional autonomous. Establishing autonomous office and using autonomous right intownship minority settlement is impossible and unnecessary. However, establishing ethnictownships is to adapt to special situations of the minorities in the settlement, that is to say,ethnic townships enjoys autonomous right under the assurance of laws and regulations. Due tothe different aspects above, the development of the minorities in the ethnic townships isspecial compared with those in inhabiting scattered in rural and urban areas and those settledin the implemented regional ethnic autonomous areas. So it is necessary to specially researchthe development issues of the minorities in the ethnic townships both theoretically andpractically.98ethnic townships are established in Sichuan province, comes right afterGuizhou, Yunnan, and Hunan province. The research of the development issues of ethnictownships in Sichuan province has value typically to the development in minority nationalityregions. Based on the domestic existing research achievements and related academic theories,learning and assimilating the historical experience of the construction of China’s ethnictownships, the writer tries to concretely analyze the theoretical connotations of ethnictownships, and the conditions, principles, nature of their establishment, and then go furtherresearch on the theoretical basis of the necessity of the ethnic townships’ development.,through the historical review and the view of theoretical circles. Taking the current situationof the ethnic townships in Sichuan Province for example, the writer will think about thechallenges in the development of the ethnic townships and put forward some countermeasuresand suggestions.