BEIJING ? The governor of China's restive western region wants to boost its economy by further opening it up to external trade and investment, state media said Monday, the eve of the second anniversary of the region's worst ethnic violence in over a decade.
Gov. Nur Bekri said he would promote Xinjiang's foreign trade and economic cooperation with neighboring countries, work on establishing special economic zones in the cities of Kashgar and Horgos and attract domestic and foreign investors, the China News Service said.
China's leaders believe faster economic development will reduce ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, and its efforts resemble those already under way in also tense Tibet. Xinjiang is China's Central Asian frontier, bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and other countries, and was long a gateway, the region crossed by the Silk Road caravan routes that sent Chinese silk to the Middle East and Europe.
Bekri said further expanding trade and economic links was key to Xinjiang's long-term stability, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
He urged the region to participate more in international cooperation and competition in economic and technological areas, it reported.
Xinjiang remains tense after deadly clashes erupted between predominantly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants in 2009. Uighurs attacked Hans, overturning buses and torching shops in the regional capital of Urumqi in a riot the government says killed 197 people.
In the aftermath, hundreds were arrested and about two dozen sentenced to death. Many other Uighurs remain unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.
Uighur activists say the riots, which were followed by retaliatory attacks by Han people, were the result of decades of pent-up frustration with Chinese rule.
China's leaders say all ethnic groups are treated equally and point to the billions of dollars in investment that has modernized the strategically vital region with significant oil and gas deposits. Many Uighurs say they suffer discrimination in jobs and cannot get loans and passports, while many Hans see the Uighurs as a privileged minority with government jobs and university places reserved for them in Xinjiang.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, said official pressure on Uighurs continues to intensify and accused the government of using Bekri's remarks in the state media to "distort the worsening situation."
"The monitoring and investigating of Uighurs is strengthening. Racial discrimination is further increasing," he said, warning that "China's systematic policy of repression is fueling the emergence of new local unrest."
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