Strengthening Social Management Of The County Government In Yunnan Border Ethnic Areas

Enhancing social management innovation in order to achieve a harmonized economic-social development is a strategic goal established by the CPC Central Committee in light of the nature of China’s social development phase in the21st Century as well as in the context of new developments in its national and international situations. It is also an important strategic issue faced by China in today’s social transition process。Yunnan’s multi-ethnic border areas lie at the forefront of its endeavor to open up to the outside, and occupy a strategic position in the implementation of its "Two strengths and one bridgehead" strategy (The strategy of developing Yunnan into a province with a robust green economy and distinctive ethnic cultures as well as China’s southwest-oriented bridgehead). Against this background, promoting social management innovation at the level of border county governments plays a key role in securing social stability, economic prosperity, national unity as well as safety and security of these border areas.This paper, by applying relevant social management theories, analyses social management innovation practices by county governments in Yunnan’s multi-ethnic border areas and thus reveals that the county-level social management in these areas is international, ethnic-related, and is arduous process, regional differences and coexistence of various religions. Building on this, the paper further identifies the following six major problems in this field:blind spots in migrant population management, the increase in the number of "illegal foreigners"(foreigners who entered China illegally, who stay on illegal residence status and who are illegally employed), difficulties in the administration of marriages involving foreigners, disputes resulting from the return of border population, inadequate assistance to special vulnerable groups and law violations and crimes which require urgent actions. Based on this, the paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the county-level social management status quo in these multi-ethnic border areas as well as existing problems and their root causes, and recommends an overall work plan, basic guiding principles, tasks, countermeasures and measures。...