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China promises more development in restive Xinjiang, Tibet

Source: AFP,5 March,2010

 BEIJING, March 5 (AFP) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao vowed on Friday to promote growth and development in the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, where violent protests against communist rule have triggered a huge clampdown.

"We will focus on formulating and implementing policies for economic and social development in Xinjiang, Tibet and Tibetan ethnic areas," Wen said in his "state of the nation" speech to open the annual session of parliament.

Wen also pledged to strengthen the capabilities of the People's Armed Police, a large paramilitary force tasked with squelching domestic unrest, an issue in minority regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang.

Ethnic tensions in the two western regions have triggered violent protests in the past two years, sparking a tough security crackdown mixed with softer government pledges to improve people's lives.

In March 2008, riots against alleged government repression erupted in Tibet's capital Lhasa. China says 21 people were killed by "rioters" and that security forces killed one "insurgent".

But the Tibetan government-in-exile, headed by the exiled Dalai Lama, claimed that more than 200 people were killed and some 1,000 hurt in the unrest and subsequent crackdown.

Then in July 2009, Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region -- which is home to more than eight million mainly Muslim Uighurs who have long chafed under Chinese rule -- was the scene of deadly ethnic riots.

The government has said nearly 200 people were killed and 1,600 injured in the violence, which pitted Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han majority.

China has already invested enormous amounts of money in developing ethnic minority areas to raise living standards.

Xinjiang's economy, for example, quadrupled to 400 billion yuan (60 billion dollars) in 2008 as compared with 1997, the state-run Xinhua news reported last year.

But Tibet and Xinjiang exiles have criticised this as harmful to their culture, and say that the majority Han often get a disproportionate slice of the economic pie.

The government has a policy of transferring members of the Han population to Xinjiang and Tibet to consolidate Beijing's authority -- a move that has exacerbated resentment among the locals.
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