BEIJING: China's central government is believed to be on the the verge of unveiling a major support package to help boost development and bring lasting stability in the far western Xinjiang region rocked by a deadly riot last year.An imminent move has been heralded by measures earlier this year to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive support scheme.From April 7 to May 8, government delegations from 19 affluent provinces and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Shenzhen, visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to discuss detailed plans to boost the region's development.
Under a "pairing assistance" model revealed by the central government at a high-level meeting on March 29 and 30, the 19 provinces and cities are each required to help support the development of different areas in Xinjiang. Guangdong, for instance, is mainly to assist the Shufu and Jiashi counties in the Kashgar Prefecture."Although Xinjiang has experienced rapid development in recent years, it is still lagging behind other provinces and facing restrictions in capital, technology, skills, management and other areas," said Dong Zhaowu, of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Academy of Social Sciences.The "roadmap" unveiled at the March meeting is aimed at achieving a "marked" development in Xinjiang's economy and a "marked" improvement in living standards within five years.It aims to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other inland regions as much as possible over 10 years and guarantee that Xinjiang fulfills the goal of achieving a "moderately prosperous society in all aspects" by 2020."On its own resources and strength, it is hard for Xinjiang to resolve all the issues within a short period," Dong said.In January, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) announced that a central work conference would be held this year to discuss Xinjiang's development, a top-level meeting widely expected to unveil a string of polices to boost development.No official statement has been made about the specific date of the top-level conference, but analysts believe the March 29-30 meeting, attended by Vice Premier Li Keqiang and senior leader Zhou Yongkang, and the subsequent "investigation tours" by the 19 provinces and cities to Xinjiang are all "warm-up" moves for the event.In addition, personnel changes in Xinjiang, in which former Party chief of Hunan Province Zhang Chunxian replaced Wang Lequan as Xinjiang's Party chief late last month, are also considered by some observers a harbinger of greater support."The central work conference is a very important meeting when Xinjiang's reform and opening-up and socialist modernization drive enter a critical period," Zhang was quoted as saying by Monday's Xinjiang Daily."Through the meeting, the CPC Central Committee is to mobilize the strength of the entire Party and the entire nation to ... guarantee that Xinjiang fulfills the goal of achieving a moderately prosperous society in all aspects at the same time as all other provinces and regions by 2020," he told Xinjiang officials in Beijing Sunday.Ten months after the riot in the regional capital, Urumqi, that left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured in July last year, Internet services in Xinjiang had fully resumed, another sign the situation was returning to normal and the region was preparing for a fresh new start.
ASSISTANCE FOR SOUTHERN XINJIANG A PRIORITYAccording to the "roadmap" and "assignment" of the 19 provinces and cities, the economically underdeveloped regions of southern Xinjiang - including the Kashgar and Hotan prefecture and the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu - will be priorities in the "pairing assistance."Almost a third of Xinjiang's 21 million population live in these three poor, backward regions, and the vast majority of the people there are from ethnic minority groups. In Urumqi, a large portion of the migrant population living in needy conditions are from the southern Xinjiang regions.Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang autonomous regional government, acknowledged there is a regional imbalance between the northern and southern parts of Xinjiang."In southern Xinjiang, the regions are lagging behind in development, and the living standards of the residents - not only the ethnic minorities but the Han ethnic group as well - need to be improved," he told reporters in March while attending the annual session of the country's top legislature in Beijing.The economic powerhouses of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shenzhen will undertake the task of assisting the three Xinjiang regions, according to the "assignment."Liu Qi, Party chief of Beijing, has promised 7.2 billion yuan (1.06 billion U.S. dollars) from 2011 to 2015 to support development in several areas in Hotan.The "pairing assistance" model has actually been practiced since 1997 and has played an important role in promoting Xinjiang's development.This new wave of "pairing assistance" is believed to be more effective.Media reports and analysts have said the 19 affluent provinces and cities will be expected to earmark 0.3-0.6 percent of their fiscal revenue every year from 2011 to 2020 to support Xinjiang's development.Xinjiang will next year receive about 10 billion yuan from other Chinese local governments.A comparative figure given by the Oriental Outlook Weekly shows Xinjiang received 4.3 billion yuan in cash and supplies from other provinces over the past 13 years."Our assistance work will focus on creating jobs and construction of public facilities like schools, hospitals, charity houses and nursing homes," said Yang Chongyong, vice governor of Hebei Province, which is to help the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin.In addition to monetary support for projects concerning people's livelihoods, the 19 provinces and cities have pledged to send more talented and skilled workers to Xinjiang."We will focus not only on development for today and 'hardware' construction in Xinjiang, but also on long-term development and 'software' construction," said Li Zhanshu, Party chief of Heilongjiang Province, which is to help the Altay Prefecture."We will aim for not only 'blood transfusion,' but also improving Xinjiang's 'hematopoietic function' to help the region boost its self-development capability," he said.Wang Xi'en from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said money is not the sole factor restricting Xinjiang's development; lack of talent is another major factor."The new round of 'pairing assistance' will be a comprehensive program involving money, talented people, technology and management," he said.
LEAPFROG DEVELOPMENT, LASTING STABILITYAccording to the high-level meeting held by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 23, China will strive to achieve "leapfrog development" in Xinjiang."It is a major and urgent task of strategic significance for us to boost the economic and social development of Xinjiang to achieve lasting stability in the region," Chinese President Hu Jintao told the meeting.Experts have pinned great hopes on the central work conference on Xinjiang."While laying out macro-economic plans, the country should take Xinjiang as a special economic zone and adopt special measures to support its development," said Ji Sulin from the Economic Development Research Center with the Party School's CPC Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Committee.He proposed reforms be introduced in Xinjiang to differentiate tax rates and distribute value-added taxes between the central government and the Xinjiang local government."The country can also set up special economic zones on a trial basis in Xinjiang," he said.
Scholars have also voiced concern for the ethnic minorities in the "pairing assistance" drive, as businesses in Xinjiang that are from other provinces have always employed workers from inland provinces instead of local residents due to language barriers and insufficient labor skills."Businesses should offer more job opportunities and labor training to local people from ethnic minorities. In the inland provinces where there are migrant workers from Xinjiang, the local authorities should have the responsibility and obligation to create jobs for them," said Xu Jianying from the Research Center of China's Border History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences."The government should pay attention to, do things for and talk more with the people at the bottom of society and the marginalized groups," Xu said.Although Zhang Chunxian's governance of Xinjiang has barely started, a regulation issued just days after Zhang's arrival in Xinjiang late last month aroused wide attention: it called for bilingual officials.Under the regulation, applicants for government jobs in Xinjiang must be able to communicate in both Chinese and one of the local languages of the ethnic minorities."Such a regulation will enable civil servants to better serve the people, and help enhance exchange among local residents of different ethnic groups," said Ma Pinyan from the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Academy of Social Sciences.
