Abstract: In order to pursue President Xi Jinping's key spirits on water management and the water management policy of the new era— "prioritizing water saving, spatial balance, systematic governance, and giving full play to the role of government and market" and implement the governance requirement of small and medium-sized rivers with river basin as a unit from Ministry of Water Conservancy, 2 457 small and medium-sized rivers in the Changjiang River Basin were investigated one by one, and the outstanding problems existing in the current governance were systematically analyzed.The survey found that the small and medium-sized rivers in the Changjiang River Basin generally have common problems such as lack of systematic governance, outstanding shortcomings of the flood control system, and the need to improve governance capacity.In order to improve the governance effectiveness of small and medium-sized rivers in the Changjiang River Basin, this paper put forward governance countermeasures and suggestions such as strengthening systematic governance based on reasoning, strengthening river basin coordination, strengthening financial guarantee, and implementing long-term management and protection from the perspective of system theory.Research results can provide guidance for the governance of small and medium-sized rivers.