China further eased restrictions on communications in its troubled Xinjiang region, restoring text messaging services six months after deadly ethnic unrest, state media said Monday.
The move followed similar recent moves to reintroduce Internet access, with residents now able to access the websites of two state media outlets as well as two popular web portals, sina.com.cn and sohu.com.
Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed regional government official as saying text messaging services were "gradually" restored on Sunday. Some online banking services are now also available, the report said.
The report said the communications blackout put in place after the deadly riots in the regional capital Urumqi in early July, which left nearly 200 people dead, had proven "effective" in helping to maintain regional stability.
The official quoted by Xinhua did acknowledge the measures had also "brought inconveniences to people's lives".
Mobile users can send texts within China but not to international numbers, the China Daily reported, citing an official at China Mobile, the country's biggest operator by subscribers.
Users are also limited to 20 text messages a day, and cannot transfer unused messages to subsequent days, the newspaper said.
Riots erupted in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi on July 5, pitting mainly Muslim Uighurs against China's majority Han, in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.
Authorities quickly reacted by restricting the flow of information going in and out of the region.
The government says terrorists, separatists and religious extremists used the Internet, telephones and mobile text messages to spread rumours and hatred as the July violence erupted.
So far 22 people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, have been sentenced to death for the violence, drawing sharp criticism from the West and rights groups concerned that the accused were denied fair trials.
Nine executions have so far been reported by state press.
The government has nearly doubled funding for public security in the region for 2010 to 2.89 billion yuan (423 million dollars), as compared with last year, state media reported last week.
Users quoted by state media welcomed the return of texting, but said other communications services remained blocked
"We still can't contact people on the Internet by email. Online chat rooms such as MSN and QQ are still blocked," the Global Times quoted Urumqi resident Chen Chao as saying.
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