By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s President Xi Jinping urged Xinjiang government officials on Wednesday to spare no effort to maintain social stability in the northwestern region, state media reported, after a prolonged security crackdown largely targeting ethnic Uyghurs.
Xi arrived in Urumqi on Tuesday with a large delegation of senior politicians to attend celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the founding of Xinjiang as an autonomous region, in the first such visit by a Chinese president to the region.
“It is necessary to make every effort to maintain the overall social stability of Xinjiang,” Xi told local cadres after listening to a government work report, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Build a solid people’s defence line against terrorism … and guide cadres and people of all ethnic groups to establish a correct view of the country, history, ethnicity, culture and religion.”
SANCTIONS HAVE HIT XINJIANG’S ECONOMY
He also urged local officials to “cultivate competitive industrial clusters” and strengthen science and technological innovation to drive economic growth, after several Xinjiang officials and entities were sanctioned by the United States for alleged forced Uyghur labour in the region.
U.S. authorities say Beijing established internment camps to detain Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Beijing has denied any abuses, and says that its so-called “vocational education centres” were shut down in 2019.
The latest tranche of sanctions in January banned imports from 37 Chinese companies, including one of the world’s largest textile manufacturers.
Xinjiang officials last week admitted that U.S. sanctions had negatively impacted the local economy, causing unemployment due to firms’ reduced ability to export.
Xi was accompanied by Wang Huning, China’s top official in charge of ethnic and religious affairs, and Cai Qi, his trusted chief of staff and China’s number five official.
In recent years, Chinese officials have sought to turbocharge the region’s economic development to focus on manufacturing and clean tech industries, as well as heavily promoting domestic cultural tourism to the region.
Xi said Xinjiang should “play a greater role in promoting domestic and international dual circulation,” a Chinese policy for strengthening domestic self-sufficiency in key sectors.
He was welcomed in Urumqi, the regional capital, by crowds of dancing Uyghurs and children waving flags saying “Xi Dada, we love you,” state media footage showed.
Xi will attend a commemoration ceremony on Thursday morning, state media reported.
The president also made a rare two-day visit to Tibet last month to mark the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s founding as an autonomous region.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom, Editing by William Maclean and Ros Russell)
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