after the Reform and Opening-up in the 1978, in particular the introduction of the Household responsibility system, and rural tax reforms in 2006. These profound changes enabled the rural population to emancipate themselves from the reliance on local party cadres and the institutionalized dependencies. The party-state experienced a governance crisis in rural areas of the country. As part of its fight against poverty in the countryside, the Chinese Communist Party announced its plan of “building a new socialist countryside” (建设社会主义新农村) in 2005. The aim was to deal with three problems in the countryside: suffering amongst village people, poverty in the countryside, as well as threats to agriculture. The First-Secretary-in-Residence-Scheme There were setbacks in the implementation of “building a new socialist countryside” due to the governance crisis on the countryside. Policies from the top were not followed at the lowest level of government. This was particularly an issue in rural areas in the Southwest, more specifically in ethnic-minority villages in Southwest China. In these areas, clannism hindered higher-level authorities from fully governing the villages. Clans in control would rule villages according to their own interests. Oftentimes, village cadres were clan members. In the past, the party had relied on local clans in order to maintain stability in the villages. Such villages were effectively independent kingdoms (独立王国 dú lì wáng guó). Money received from higher-level authorities for poverty alleviation was used for the benefit of clan members. Thus, Beijing was facing a lack of authority in certain parts of the country and hence had difficulties to fight rural poverty. To be better able to decrease poverty rates in the countryside, the party put in place the system of a rural first-secretary-in-residence (驻村第一书记 zhù cūn dì yī shūjì ). The first secretary sent to a specific village was to be in charge of the two village committees (村两委 cūn liǎng wěi), the party committee and the villagers’ committee, which up until then had been led by the party secretary (村支书 cūn zhīshū) and chairman (村主任 cūn zhǔ rèn) respectively. In this system, the first secretary was a provincial cadre sent to the village for two years while still being employed by provincial authorities. The role was designed to fight clannism and enable effective poverty alleviation. The case of Targeted Poverty Alleviation on village level: The Villagers Poverty Alleviation Working Committee in Ximeng, Yunnan Province New village governance structures within the existing village constitution