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Beijing (AFP) April 23, 2010 China's top leadership has decided to ramp up development in its restive Xinjiang region, state media said Friday, where ethnic Uighurs have long complained of missing out on economic growth. The decision was taken in a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's powerful nine-member inner circle presided over by President Hu Jintao, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said the move was aimed at securing "long-term social stability in the region", which was torn by violence between mainly Muslim Uighurs and China's Han majority last July. The explosion of unrest in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi left nearly 200 people dead and 1,700 injured, according to the government, and was the worst ethnic strife in China in decades. The meeting marked the latest expression of Chinese resolve to push economic development in the northwestern region as a salve for simmering unrest among Uighurs -- while also vowing to maintain tight control. Xinjiang's roughly eight million Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people, have seethed under Chinese control, alleging political, religious and cultural oppression by Beijing. A key gripe has been what many Uighurs see as lop-sided economic development benefiting Han immigrants to the area. "The meeting stressed that economic and social development in Xinjiang should be pushed forward in a sound and fast way, with the priority going to guaranteeing and improving people's livelihood so that all ethnic groups in the region could live a wealthier and happier life," Xinhua said. The vast, energy-rich region of punishing deserts that borders on central Asia is one of China's poorest areas. But its economy has been among the country's fastest growing in recent years thanks to stepped-up development of its energy resources to meet soaring demand in China's main population centres in the country's east. The meeting decided that the government should ensure that "people of different ethnic groups and religions can live in harmony and that social stability be maintained and enhanced in the region." Last month, state media quoted the region's top official, Wang Lequan, saying China would sharply increase investment in Xinjiang in hopes that higher living standards for Uighurs would quell the simmering unrest.
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