According to the white paper entitled Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, the central government has increased the financial input in 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 andother ways.

The white paper says that 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 maintained.

While adopting the method of transitional transfer payment in 1995, the white paper says, 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.