Abstract: Partner Assistance in Xinjiang is a specific crossregion economic cooperation, which is led by national government. It is an method used by centre government in order to deal with the unbalance regional development and promote economic growth in some developing area. There should be more literature on theoretical bases of Partner Assistance in Xinjiang, as the new round of partner assistance of Jiangsu to Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture began in 2010. From intergovernmental relations perspective, this paper takes Partner Assistance of Jiangsu to Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture as a case study and applies the basic concept of intergovernmental relations theory, to study the formation of this intergovernmental network in Partner Assistance, reveal the complicacy of it, identify the stakeholders in it and analyze their interactions and functions. This study creates an analysis flow, and all the research is based on that. When comes to the step of stakeholder-identify, the method of stakeholders objective is been used. All related materials are got from the field survey in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. This research shows that the intergovernmental network is a complicated one which includes horizontal relationship and vertical relationship. The relation between centre government and local government, or, superior authorities and inferior authorities is vertical one. While horizontal relationship means connection between cities in Jiangsu and Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecrture. In this case, the horizontal relationship is decided by vertical relationship. The Partner Assistance network might not be established easily without the policy of national government. Different members in this network might act differently because their aim and appeal vary. This paper indicates that, in the Jiangsu-Ili network, all participant cities which give and receive funds, such as counties and cities directly under Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture and Divisions which belong to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, are important stakeholders, while others are common ones in the network. Among the common stakeholders, the centre government mainly acts on the moderation of regional relations, and the Jiangsu Provincial Government, Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the government of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture is transitional parts of the network. Meanwhile, among the important stakeholders, all participant cities which receive the aid focus on how to use the limited assistance funds. They mainly focus on how to improve local people’s life, for exomple, building house or hospital. And all participant cities in Jiangsu which give the aid emphasize on establishing some sort of industry cooperation. If they could use the natural resources and policy advantages properly, what they get might far outweigh what they pay. Finally, this paper reveals that horizontal relationship in the Partner Assistance is not a result of government command only, to a large extent, it might turn to a long term partnership. In the long run, it is a stage of intergovernmental relation; two important stakeholders will establish a strategic partnership that features cooperation, mutual benefit and allwin in the future. And this long run relation might help the whole China achieve balance development. This study gives some experience and advice for how to develop a better crossregion relationship, and the results might be used as a source of reference in the assistance work in Xinjiang or Xizang someday.

Key words: intergovernmental relations, Partner Assistance in Xinjiang, stakeholder, Jiangsu, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture