Since 1999, the Chinese government has launched large-scale transport infrastructure construction programs that were intended to benefit all ethnic autonomous regions, such as "Outlet Highways for Impoverished Counties," "Asphalt Roads to Every County in Western China" and "Inter-County and Rural Highways." Roads in rural areas and county-level roads totaling 225,000 km have been built or renovated, with a total investment of almost 100 billion yuan. This has markedly improved the formerly backward transport conditions in some areas inhabited by ethnic minorities.

    (3) Strengthening Financial Support for Ethnic Autonomous Areas With the development of the national economy and the growth in financial revenue, governments at all levels have gradually increased transfer payments from the exchequer to ethnic autonomous areas. Through ordinary transfer payments from the exchequer, special-purpose transfer payments from the exchequer, transfer payments from the exchequer according to preferential policies regarding ethnic minorities, and other ways, the central government has increased the financial input in ethnic autonomous areas to promote their economic development and social progress, and gradually reduce the gap between them and the more developed areas. The Chinese government has established some special-purpose funds, including the "Subsidy for Ethnic Minority Areas" established since 1955, and the "Stand-by Fund for Ethnic Minority Areas" in 1964. Moreover, it has also adopted some preferential policies, such as raising the proportion of reserve fund for ethnic minority areas, to help ethnic autonomous areas develop their economies and raise the people’s living standards. In the 1980-1988 period, the central budget provided a set-quota subsidy system with a yearly increase of 10 percent to Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet autonomous regions, as well as Yunnan, Guizhou and Qinghai provinces, which have large numbers of ethnic-minority inhabitants. In 1994, the central government introduced a structural reform of its financial management with the focus on a system of sharing tax revenue between the central and local authorities, but the policies of providing subsidies and special appropriations to ethnic minority areas have maintained. While adopting the method of transitional transfer payment in 1995, the central government tilted its policy toward the ethnic minority areas by adding special provisions concerning the policy of transfer payments to ethnic minority areas, covering Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet autonomous regions, Yunnan, Guizhou and Qinghai provinces and some autonomous prefectures of ethnic minorities in other provinces. (More)