The state vigorously organizes and encourages paired-up assistance between the economically developed areas and the less-developed minority areas. In 1979 it decided to pair up such areas, for example, getting Beijing to assist Inner Mongolia, Hebei to assist Guizhou, Jiangsu to assist Guangxi and Xinjiang, Shandong to assist Qinghai, Shanghai to assist Yunnan and Ningxia, and the whole nation to assist Tibet. In 1996 the State Council determined to organize the 15 developed provinces and cities along the eastern coast to provide aid to 11 western provinces (autonomous regions and municipality directly under the central government), and mobilized all departments of the central government to provide pair-up aid to the impoverished areas. In order to promote the development of Tibet, the central government has held four forums on work in that region. Since 1994 the state has arranged more than 60 central government departments, 18 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) and 17 state-owned enterprises to provide paired-up aid to various places in Tibet. By the end of 2008, a total of 6,050 assistance projects had been launched in Tibet, with a total of 11.128 billion yuan in assistance money.

In recent years the state has further strengthened its efforts to aid the ethnic minorities and minority areas under the guidance of the Scientific Outlook on Development. In 2005 the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued the Decision on Further Strengthening the Work on the Ethnic Minorities and Promoting Social and Economic Development in the Minority Areas, which stipulated that development is the key to overcoming difficulties and solving problems in the minority areas, and stressed that, with the gradual increase of the country's comprehensive strength, the central government would continuously strengthen support to the ethnic minorities and minority areas in their social and economic development, improve the policy-related transfer payment system compatible with the system of regional ethnic autonomy, help the minority areas build infrastructure projects that will give an impetus to local social and economic development and give special treatment to small and medium-sized public welfare projects that are closely related to the everyday life of local people. In 2007 the State Council released Some Opinions on Further Promoting Social and Economic Development in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which contained requirements and plans to accelerate the social and economic development of Xinjiang and further improve the living standards of the people of all ethnic groups there. Since 2008 the state has drawn up and issued a series of preferential policies to promote the social and economic development of the Tibetan-inhabited areas in Ningxia and Qinghai and the border areas of Yunnan, increasing input to strengthen the building of infrastructure, develop competitive industry, push forward the development of social undertakings and accelerate the social and economic development of the minority areas there.

Under the central leadership and with the full support of the whole nation and the strenuous efforts made by the people of all ethnic groups in the minority areas, great achievements in social and economic development have been scored in the minority areas, and people's living standards there have markedly improved. In 2008 the economic aggregate of the minority areas reached 3,062.62billion yuan, from 5.79 billion yuan in 1952, an increase of 92.5 times calculated at comparable prices. The urban per-capita disposable income increased to 13,170 yuan from 307 yuan in 1978, an increase of over 30 times; and the per-capita net income of farmers and herdsmen came to 3,389 yuan from 138 yuan in 1978, an increase of 19 times. The economic growth rate of Inner Mongolia has ranked top in the country for seven consecutive years, and Xinjiang has maintained double-digit growth for six years in succession. In the same year, the GDP of Tibet stood at 39.591 billion yuan, an increase of 65 times compared with 1959.

The rapid economic and social development in the minority areas has laid a solid foundation for the prosperity of all ethnic groups. According to the national census of 2000, the average life expectancy of 13 ethnic minorities was above the average national level of 71.40 years, and seven above the average Han level of 73.34 years. The population of the Hezhe ethnic group has increased from 300 in the early days of New China to over 4,000. Xinjiang is listed by the International Medical Union as one of the four regions in the world renowned for longevity, with the biggest number of people over 100 years among every million people in the country. The average life expectancy of Tibet has increased from 35.5 years in 1951, when it was peacefully liberated, to 67 years now, with 13,581 seniors aged from 80 to 99, and 62 seniors aged over 100; it is now among the regions with the most centenarians on average in China.