The Legal Path of Digital Technology Driving the Modernization of Border Ethnic Affairs Governance

Abstract

The modernization of border ethnic affairs governance driven by digital technology is an inevitable requirement arising from the overlapping strategies of national governance modernization and Digital China construction. Based on the three-dimensional analytical framework of "technology-institution-value", this paper systematically interprets the legal basis and practical landscape of digital empowerment for border ethnic affairs governance, analyzes the in-depth legal dilemmas faced by the current governance transformation, and constructs a systematic optimized legal path. The research finds that digital technology has been deeply embedded in core fields such as border ethnic affairs decision-making, public service supply, ethnic unity cultivation, and border security governance, significantly improving the refinement and modernization of governance. However, practical governance is confronted with prominent problems, including the formalization of ethnic equality caused by the reproduction of the digital divide, lagging institutional supply and normative conflicts, the predominance of instrumental rationality over value rationality, and deviation from the core essence of ethnic unity. Accordingly, this paper constructs an optimization path from three dimensions: the legal realization of digital justice, the legal improvement of governance institutions, and the legal reshaping of governance values, providing legal support for the digital sound governance of border ethnic affairs and the consolidation of the sense of community for the Chinese nation in the new era.