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1. China's GDP up 7.9% in Q2 of 2009
July 16 (Source: Global Times) -- China's gross domestic product (GDP ) grew 7.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, while the economy grew 7.1 percent in the first half of 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.
China's GDP reached 13.98 trillion yuan (2.06 trillion US dollars) in the first half of this year, the NBS announced in a press conference. China's economy expanded by 6.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009.
2. Death toll of Urumqi riot rises to 192
Updated: 2009-07-15 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the July 5 riot in the capital city of Xinjiang rose to 192, a local official said Wednesday in Urumqi.
3. Xinjiang suffers from underdevelopment, not colonialism
July 15 (Source: Global Times) -- In analyzing the July 5 riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang, some Western commentators have claimed that they resulted from Chinese economic colonialism, which has led to discrimination of the minorities and income disparity between ethnic Uyghurs and the Han.
The New York Times, for example, wrote that “the relationship between Uyghur and Han is one of colonized to colonizer.” John Pomfret commentated in the Washington Post that “Xinjiang was treated like an imperial post instead of a province.”
What’s economic colonialism? Typically it means wealthy countries invest capital in poorer nations, exploiting their natural resources for profit. However, the underdevelopment of Xinjiang and the income gap within the region are internal issues that also affect many other areas of China.
A simple way to judge whether resource exploitation, poverty and the wealth gap are exclusively ethnic issues is to see whether such issues exist only in Xinjiang. However, the utilization of natural resources occurs not just in Xinjiang, but also elsewhere in China. Corporations and individuals from everywhere in the country can invest in Shanxi coal-mining, and the coal excavated is shipped to other parts of China in need of fuel.
People in Shanxi sometimes complain that the current coal pricing system underestimates the true value of coal, while those in other provinces wish a lower price.
Similarily, hydraulic power plants have been built in the Tujia gorges in Hubei Province and the mountainous Yi regions of Sichuan Province, with investments from other provinces pouring in, after which a grid transfers part of the energy generated to East and South China.
The current electricity allocation and pricing system sometimes arouse controversy among local residents. Some are demanding a reform of the system to let them benefit more. Hard living conditions have also led to a wide wealth gap between these people and those in East and South China.
Facts speak louder than words. The existence of these same problems in other parts of China, including many ethnic minority areas, are more than enough to prove that these are not exclusively Uygur or Xinjiang issues. The Chinese government is by no means shying away from the problems facing Xinjiang, just as it has confronted similar challenges in other parts of China. The issue of resource util i z a t ion, instead of being an ethnic issue, is actually one of conflicting economic interest between regions that supply these resources and regions then consume them.
To solve such a problem in Xinjiang, the central government, while drilling and consuming oil, has also spent a lot to boost its regional economic development and improve the well-being of the local people, including the Uygurs.
This is best evidenced by the central government’s sustained fiscal support to infrastructure construction, improvement of education and healthcare, and the protection of ethnic cultural heritage in Xinjiang. It reflects not only the goodwill of top decision-makers, but also the great contribution of taxpayers from every corner of the country to the welfare of the Uygur people.
As an unpleasant and inevitable byproduct of market competition, widening income disparity and wealth gap is an economic problem with grave social consequences. China laid great emphasis on these issues in recent years and has mounted gigantic efforts to narrow the gap.
These efforts have begun to pay off, especially in Xinjiang. From 2000 to 2007, the gap between per capita GDP for Kashgar, one of Xinjiang’s poorest regions and largely populated by Uygurs, and that of the rest of China narrowed considerably.
Like other provinces and regions, Xinjiang is not free of economic and social problems, but these are problems shared by the rest of China, not exclusively ethnic issues. Recognizing this is vital to the stability of Xinjiang and the solution of its problems.
The author is an associate professor at the School of Economics, Sichuan University; his blog is: http://blog.huanqiu. com/?jiawen
Relative links:
http://www.truexinjiang.com/
http://english.cri.cn
www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/default.htm
www.chinaview.cn
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/
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