Among the 56 ethnic groups in China, 22 have fewer than 100,000 people for each. With a combined population of no more than 630,000, these “minority groups with relatively small populations,” or “small ethnic minority groups” for short, live mainly in relatively underdeveloped regions.
    Since 2005, the Chinese Government has intensified its effort to help them improve their conditions and eventually free themselves from poverty. Work in this regard began with the May 18, 2005 Executive Meeting of the State Council, China’s central government, which approved the National Program for Assisting Ethnic Groups with Relatively Small Populations in Accelerating Development. The Program, which amounts to a central government directive, deems it necessary for the government to adopt a complete series of policy measures to accelerate the development of the 22 small ethnic minority groups. It notes that only in this way, will it be possible for the government to attain the goal of ensuring prosperity for all citizens. The Program calls for all-round progress in work to assist these ethnic minority groups. With help from the central government, according to the Program, the relevant provincial and autonomous governments shall take the full responsibility for the job, and the relevant county governments shall see to it that projects for the purpose are launched and implemented in real earnest. Here is the target set in the Program: In five years, areas inhabited by the 22 ethnic groups should attain the average or higher-than-average level of the local economic and social development.
    The Executive Meeting of the State Council also set a range of specific tasks to be accomplished in those areas. The first calls for accelerating the development of infrastructure facilities including those for supply of potable water, communication, power supply, reception of radio and TV programs and housing, as well as the so-called “basic farmland” - farmland for production to meet the local people’s basic need for food. The second obliges the local authorities to restructure the local economies, in such a way as to ensure a most efficient use of locally available resources and an increase in local people’s incomes. The third task covers the development of science and technology, education, public health, cultural and other social undertakings to promote progress of the local societies. The fourth is aimed at invigorating training of local talents, spreading science knowledge among the general public, with a view to improving the overall quality and health of the local people.
    In response, the State Reform and Development Commission and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission jointly formulated the Plan for Specific Construction Tasks to Assist Ethnic Minority Groups with Relatively Small Populations in Development. On August 8, 2005, the Plan was issued to the governments of the various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the various departments under the State Council.
    Three weeks afterwards, on September 29, the State Council called a national conference on work to assist the 22 ethnic minority groups. Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu spoke at the meeting. He described assistance to those ethnic minority groups as a “state decision of major importance,” an “important task in China’s ethnic work of the 21st century.” He urged the concerned local governments to work in real earnest to accomplish this task, with the focus of their endeavor placed on improving the basic living and working conditions in areas inhabited by the 22 ethnic groups and ensuring increases in their incomes.
    Also speaking were representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China and the State Reform and Development Commission. The representative of the Ministry of Finance pledged to earmark, from the State Fund for Development of Ethnic Minority Groups, an extra 70 million yuan for assisting the 22 small ethnic groups, thus bringing to 112 million yuan the total sum of money for the purpose.
    With government assistance, life of the 22 ethnic groups has improved significantly. The ethnic Kino and Bulang groups, in particular, are the first to have eliminated poverty. In 2004, primary school children and secondary school students of the 22 ethnic groups began receiving free textbooks.
    On May 12, 2006, President Hu Jintao took time out during an inspection tour of Yunnan Province to visit ethnic Kinos at Zhalu Village in Xishuang Banna Prefecture. Hu Jintao, who doubles as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, urged local governments to work harder in assisting the 22 ethnic minority groups.