He Zhang
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with president Xi Jinping at its core has always stood at the strategic height of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, coordinated the domestic and international situations, and placed the modernization of border governance systems and capabilities in a prominent position in national governance.
President Xi Jinping delivered important speeches at multiple key conferences such as the Central Conference on Ethnic Work, the Central Symposium on Xinjiang Work, and the Central Symposium on Tibet Work, clearly stating: “Accelerating the modernization of border governance is not only the fundamental guarantee for safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests, but also a strategic support for promoting coordinated regional development, deepening the cause of ethnic unity and progress, achieving long-term national stability, and realizing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
These important expositions profoundly reveal the special significance of border governance in the national governance system from both theoretical and practical perspectives, providing fundamental guidance for the high-quality development of border areas in the new era.
As important portals for national opening-up and key barriers for strategic security, border areas, with their unique geographical locations, complex ethnic compositions, diverse cultural traditions, and distinctive social governance environments, determine their important position in the process of modernizing national governance.
The world is currently at a historical juncture of unprecedented change in a century, with the international political and economic order undergoing accelerated restructuring and the global geopolitical strategic landscape undergoing profound shifts.
Against this backdrop, how to give full play to the unique advantages of social work in grassroots governance and build a modern governance system that both demonstrates Chinese characteristics and fits the actual conditions of border areas, and is both inclusive and innovative, has become a key link to be tackled in advancing the modernization of the national governance system and capabilities.
A large number of empirical studies and practical experiences fully show that social work, through its professional intervention methods such as case counseling, group work, and community development, can not only accurately and effectively solve long-standing practical problems in border areas such as intergenerational transmission of poverty, unbalanced supply of public services, and irrational distribution of social resources, but also inject lasting and stable endogenous development momentum into social governance in border areas through in-depth work such as establishing emotional bonds, promoting cultural integration, and strengthening national identity.
In border ethnic areas such as Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Tibet, there is a contingent of social workers rooted in the grassroots and serving the people. Based on the unique ethnic culture and regional characteristics of the local area, they give full play to the professional advantages of social work and continuously explore work models suitable for border areas with innovative thinking, injecting new vitality into the modernization of border governance.
In China’s border ethnic areas, such as Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Tibet, social workers have devoted themselves to grassroots social governance practices with professional literacy and innovative spirit, exploring characteristic governance models.
In the border areas of Yunnan, social work institutions organize cultural exchange activities to promote ethnic unity; in Xinjiang, social workers go deep into communities to advocate the concept of ecological civilization; in Tibet, social work institutions promote the protection of traditional culture of ethnic minorities.
In Yanji City in the northeastern border area, social work practices have achieved remarkable results. The city has explored a new “three-social linkage” governance path, integrating multiple resources and establishing an inter-departmental collaboration and diversified service supply system.
Although social work practices in border areas have achieved remarkable results, there are still challenges in their advancement.
Firstly, the construction of professional talent teams in border areas is insufficient, the overall quality of social work talents needs to be improved, and there is an obvious shortage in cultural sensitivity. Border areas are inhabited by multiple ethnic groups with significant ethnic differences, which places high demands on social workers’ cultural adaptability and communication skills.
Some social workers lack understanding of local culture and find it difficult to integrate into the community, resulting in a disconnect between services and needs.
To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the localized training of talents, promote cooperation between colleges and universities and border areas, and establish “bilingual social work” training programs to improve the comprehensive quality of social workers to meet governance needs.
Secondly, border areas lack a scientific and sound social work needs assessment system, which restricts the precise delivery and implementation of services. The social structure in border areas is complex, and the needs of different groups are highly heterogeneous.
The lack of an assessment mechanism easily leads to “one-size-fits-all” services, which are difficult to meet individual needs. In ethnic minority areas, cultural factors are intertwined, placing higher requirements on the localization innovation and adaptive development of services.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish a scientific and systematic needs assessment system, accurately identify needs through methods such as big data analysis, and ensure that services are precise, professional, and sustainable.
In addition, the resource supply system for social work in border areas still needs to be further improved. Due to the relatively backward economic development in border areas and limited financial investment, the funding sources for social work services are relatively single, mainly relying on government financial support, with low participation of social capital and social organizations.
This single funding supply model has to a certain extent restricted the coverage and sustainability of social work services.
To this end, we should actively explore diversified funding mechanisms, encourage social forces such as enterprises, foundations, and public welfare organizations to participate in the construction of social work in border areas, and expand the funding sources of social work services through the establishment of community funds, public welfare donations, and the introduction of social capital investment, so as to improve the sustainability and coverage of services.
China has a vast territory, with significant geographical differences from the eastern coastal plains to the western plateau mountains, and from the northern grassland deserts to the southern hilly water towns.
The 56 ethnic groups have formed distinctive cultural traditions, customs, and values in the long historical development process. This dual diversity of geography and culture determines that building a social work system that meets the needs of modern social governance and fully reflects local cultural characteristics has extremely important practical significance and far-reaching strategic value.
The scientific construction and continuous improvement of this system are not only directly related to the stable economic and social development of border ethnic areas.
The long-term stability of the cause of ethnic unity and progress, and the continuous improvement of the people’s well-being of all ethnic groups, but also an important practical path and innovative exploration for implementing the Party’s strategy for governing Xinjiang in the new era and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and capabilities.
In border ethnic areas, the construction of the social work system needs to be based on the actual economic and social development of the local area, deeply explore and systematically integrate the excellent traditional cultural resources and local wisdom of all ethnic groups.
In particular, emphasis should be placed on cultivating a contingent of “bilingual social workers” with strong political quality, excellent professional capabilities, and profound cultural literacy.
Such compound talents should not only be proficient in the national common language and characters but also master ethnic minority languages and cultures, and be able to build a communication bridge between people from different cultural backgrounds.
By organically combining the advanced concepts of modern social governance with the ecological wisdom, mediation art, and mutual assistance traditions inherited from generation to generation in border areas, we can achieve the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional governance resources, and finally form a new social work model that reflects Chinese characteristics and fits the actual conditions of border areas.
In addition, the development of social work empowering border social governance should be guided by the modern governance concept of “co-construction, co-governance, and sharing”.
That is, through specific measures such as setting up community public welfare posts, building grassroots comprehensive service stations, carrying out cultural benefit projects, and organizing ethnic unity activities, we can fully stimulate the sense of ownership of people of all ethnic groups.
Efforts should be made to cultivate the endogenous development momentum of the community, improve the ability of the grassroots to self-organize, self-serve, and self-manage, and build a multi-dimensional social resilience protection system covering risk prevention and control, psychological counseling, and cultural integration.
These measures will lay a solid social foundation for the long-term stability and high-quality development of border areas, promote mutual understanding and deeper feelings among all ethnic groups in common production and life, and finally form a new situation of ethnic integration where “you have me and I have you”, jointly safeguarding the peace and stability of the motherland’s borders.
Objectively speaking, the modernization of the border governance system and capabilities is an indispensable and key part of Chinese-style modernization.
As an important support of the national governance system and an innovative practice of grassroots social governance, the in-depth participation of social work can not only significantly enhance the resilience and flexibility of border governance but also provide solid grassroots support and guarantee for the construction of a “resilient China”.
Looking to the future, it is necessary to coordinate multiple relationships such as economic development and social construction, efficiency improvement and fairness and justice, security and stability, and development and progress, and promote border areas to achieve higher-quality and more sustainable development in key areas such as promoting ethnic unity and progress, strengthening ecological environmental protection, and improving people’s well-being, so as to build a solid border security barrier for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
In the process of modernizing border governance, the deep integration of professional social work forces helps to improve the refinement level of grassroots social governance, and respond to the complex needs of border areas with professional services and flexible governance methods. By establishing emotional bonds and other work, endogenous motivation is injected into border governance.
In border ethnic areas such as Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Tibet, social workers are based on local characteristics, give full play to their professional advantages, explore new work models, and inject vitality into border governance.
Taking Yanji City of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province as an example, the city has explored a new “three-social linkage” governance path, with professional social workers as the support, community service platforms as the carrier, and social organizations as the link, integrating multiple resources and establishing an inter-departmental collaboration mechanism and a diversified service supply system.
This model has built a social service network covering multiple fields and four administrative levels, realizing the precision, specialization, and full coverage of social services.
The experience of Yanji City shows that social work can respond to the needs of border governance, promote the transformation of grassroots governance to collaborative services and multi-subject co-governance, and accumulate valuable experience for the modernization of border governance.
In the process of building a social work system in line with the actual conditions of border areas, it is necessary to fully explore and systematically integrate the excellent traditional cultural resources and local wisdom of all ethnic groups.
In particular, emphasis should be placed on cultivating a contingent of “bilingual social workers” with strong political quality, excellent professional capabilities, and profound cultural literacy.
Such compound talents should not only be proficient in the national common language and characters but also master ethnic minority languages and cultures, and be able to build a communication bridge between people from different cultural backgrounds.
By organically combining the advanced concepts of modern social governance with the ecological wisdom, mediation art, and mutual assistance traditions inherited from generation to generation in border areas, we can achieve the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional governance resources, and finally form a new social work model that reflects Chinese characteristics and fits the actual conditions of border areas.
To sum up, the modernization of the governance system and capabilities in border areas is an indispensable and key part of Chinese-style modernization. The in-depth participation of professional social work forces can not only significantly enhance the resilience and flexibility of border governance but also provide solid grassroots support and guarantee for the construction of a “resilient China”.
Looking to the future, it is necessary to coordinate multiple relationships such as economic development and social construction, efficiency improvement and fairness and justice, security and stability, and development and progress, and promote border areas to achieve higher-quality and more sustainable development in key areas such as promoting ethnic unity and progress, strengthening ecological environmental protection, and improving people’s well-being, so as to build a solid border security barrier for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
This innovative practice model of deeply integrating professional social work into the national governance system not only fully demonstrates the remarkable advantages and strong vitality of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics but also provides Chinese wisdom and solutions for countries around the world, especially developing countries, to explore border governance paths, showing the mission and responsibility of a responsible major country.
On the new journey of the new era, we should continue to improve the social work system in border areas with a more open vision, more innovative thinking, and more pragmatic measures, and inject new and powerful impetus into the prosperity, stability, and long-term peace and stability of border areas.
He Zhang, from the University of Leeds, Business School, 2022 postgraduate student
