Abstract: As an important unit of grassroots social governance in China, rural areas have always played an important role in promoting harmonious and effective social governance. The backbone of elderly residents are not only the assistant in grassroots social governance, but also the confidant of the masses, and the liaison between the grassroots and the masses, providing strong impetus for rural governance. Based on the analysis of literature on social relationship network theory, it was found that, there was an inherent logical relationship between strong and weak relationship networks and the participation of elderly residents in rural social governance. Taking the typical way of participating in social governance as an example, the analysis revealed that, there were difficulties in constructing strong relationships and being constrained by weak connections in the current participation of elderly residents in rural social governance. In response to the aforementioned difficulties, comprehensive strategies such as reconstructing strong relationship networks and expanding weak relationship networks had been designed based on the theoretical framework of strong weak relationships, in order to optimize the participation of elderly residents in rural social governance paths and effectively promote rural development.