China says West inciting unrest in Xinjiang
BEIJING (Reuters) - The governor of west China's tense Xinjiang region has lashed out at Western countries for instigating unrest in the area, but said their schemes would never succeed as only very few people supported separatism.
Oil-rich Xinjiang, strategically located on the borders of Central Asia, has been rocked by sometimes violent unrest this year, including the killing of 16 armed police just before the Beijing Olympics, blamed by China on Muslim militants.
The region's governor, Nuer Baikeli (Nur Bekri in Uyghur), said "Western hostile forces" unhappy with China's rise were directly supporting groups opposed to Beijing's rule in the region in the name of democracy and human rights.
"They all along have been direct behind-the-scenes backers and patrons of the 'three forces' at home and abroad," Baikeli said, referring to terrorism, separatism and extremism.
"They are the most important external factor in the continuing rise of ethnic splittist, destructive activities in Xinjiang, and the large threat they pose from abroad to our national security and social stability will exist for a long time," he added.
"Our struggle against ethnic splittism, in essence, is a struggle against Western hostile forces' plots to 'Westernise' and 'split' our country, it is the continuation of the struggle the Chinese people have had for 100 years or more against imperialist plans to split China."
Baikeli's strident and uncompromising comments, in a speech to Communist Party officials, were carried on central government website www.china.com.cn on Friday. They had appeared earlier in the week in the Xinjiang Daily.
Many of Xinjiang's 8 million largely Muslim Uighurs chafe at the strict controls on religion that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses. Uighurs make up slightly less than half of the region's people, and most of the rest are Han.
Human rights critics say China's tight grip in the region only further estranges Uighurs.
Baikeli said Xinjiang was engaged in a life and death fight against terrorism, and the battle was entering an acute yet complex stage.
"This is not a question of ethnicity, religion, democracy or human rights -- it is a huge question of right and wrong about maintaining or destroying national unity, of maintaining or destroying ethnic unity," he added.
Still, Beikeli, an ethnic Uighur himself, said separatists would never win the support of the majority of the people.
"Only a very small number of people in Xinjiang engage in splittist activities and they cannot represent any ethnicity. They are the common enemy of all people," he added.
"Though the several violent terrorist incidents meticulously planned by our enemies had a certain negative effect, they can never damage Xinjiang's overall public interests, and cannot shake the faith of people and officials in marching together toward an affluent society.
"Xinjiang's development prospects are bright."
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