New | NPC’s Xinjiang delegates skirt issues of unrest, Kunming at panel meeting
Delegates veer away from touchy subject and talk about economic growth -- until impatient journalists urge answers
All 60 National People’s Congress (NPC) deputies from Xinjiang sought to avoid the issue of restiveness in the region at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting that emphasised the region’s economy, and it was only when pressed by journalists that they mentioned the subject.
The officials only spoke about security threats faced by the region – which is high on people’s minds after the Kunming railway attack on March 1 -- when a journalist’s question touched on terrorism at the tail end of the meeting.
We have been making achievements over the last year despite facing complicated situations. We are making progress towards stability
In prepared speeches, the delegates, tasked to discuss the central government work report delivered on Wednesday by Premier Li Keqiang, painted a rosy picture of Xinjiang – one of high economic growth and a multitude of jobs.
“We have been making achievements over the last year despite facing complicated situations. We are making progress towards stability,” said NPC secretary general Li Jianguo.
Any mention of simmering tensions between Han Chinese and Muslim-majority Uygurs, or of concerns about terrorism in the western region after Xinjiang assailants killed 29 people and wounded 143 at a railway station in Kunming, were absent from the discourse, to the disappointment of foreign and local media present.
“We support the nation’s initiative to include Xinjiang as part of the silk road economic belt,” Liu Xinqi, head of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, said during the meeting.
“Planning of the economic belt should be stepped up.”
