Building dozens of new cities and towns in the restive western region of Xinjiang provides a \u2018fundamental solution\u2019 to the escalating threat of terrorist attacks, officials claim <\/p>\n
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai
7:24AM BST 19 Aug 2014<\/p>\n
Dozens of new cities and towns will be built from scratch in China\u2019s remote and restive far west as part of the country\u2019s intensifying \u201cpeople\u2019s war\u201d on terror, according to reports in the state media.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people have been arrested and tried in recent months following a series of deadly attacks on Chinese civilians in major cities including Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi, the capital of the western province of Xinjiang. In the most recent explosion of violence, police said they gunned down 59 alleged terrorists who slaughtered 37 people during an assault on civilians and government installations in late July.<\/p>\n
Beijing has blamed the attacks on Islamic extremists from Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region that is home to the Uighur ethnic minority. Armed police have been deployed across the country since the official anti-terror crackdown was launched in May and in some cities civilians have been invited to join anti-terror \u201cred guard\u201d units.<\/p>\n
Now, Chinese authorities are calling on urban planners to join their war on terror.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrbanisation serves as a fundamental solution to tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality in less-developed southern Xinjiang where religious conservatism is prevalent and terrorist attacks occur more frequently,\u201d the state-run Global Times newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMeasures such as creating jobs and improving education are seen as fundamental solutions to addressing the threat of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the new cities and towns will reportedly be built by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps or XPCC – a state-run paramilitary organisation that controls large swathes of the western region, a sizeable agricultural empire and even its own university, courts and police force.<\/p>\n
During a visit to Xinjiang in April, president Xi Jinping called on the group \u2013 which was founded in 1954 under Chairman Mao and is better known as the \u201cbingtuan\u201d \u2013 to act as a \u201cstabiliser of the country\u2019s border areas\u201d.<\/p>\n
The bingtuan has built seven cites since its foundation, three of which are in southern Xinjiang. Xu Weihua, the group\u2019s deputy political commissar, said the new cities would help both \u201cmaintain social stability and boost local development\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding cities and townships there is an urgent task and our priority, as the XPCC can use its economic and cultural advantages to help local people enjoy a modern and civilized social life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The cities could help promote \u201cmodern culture\u201d, Wang Dahao, a Xinjiang-based writer was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
Few precise details of the anti-terror cities have been provided. However, one will reportedly be near Hotan, a city in southern Xinjiang that has witnessed repeated outbreaks of violence including a botched axe-attack on a chess hall in June.<\/p>\n
In July 2011, as many as 20 people were reportedly killed during what authorities claimed was an assault on a local police station.<\/p>\n
The bingtuan\u2019s move to build dozens of new cities fits into a \u201cvery ambitious\u201d 20-year plan urbanisation plan unveiled by Xinjiang\u2019s government in 2012, said James Leibold, an academic from Australia\u2019s La Trobe University who studies China\u2019s ethnic policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cXinjiang must march onto the road of new style urbanization,\u201d says the plan, calling for 68 per cent of inhabitants to live in cities by 2030.<\/p>\n
Cities such as Kashgar, Korla, Karamay, Hami, Aksu and Yining will be transformed into \u201cmajor poles of growth\u201d while a number of completely new cities with more than 500,000 residents will be created.<\/p>\n
Dr Leibold said Xi Jinping was now pushing the bingtuan to play a greater role in three key aspects of Xinjiang life: security, economics and urbanization.<\/p>\n
The new cities were designed to turbo-charge Xinjiang\u2019s economy. \u201cLet\u2019s create more money, more jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bingtuan\u2019s cities would also \u201ctry to integrate Uighurs more closely into Chinese society,\u201d as a way of potentially guarding against increasing religious radicalisation and reducing ethnic violence between Uighurs and China\u2019s Han majority. \u201cBut they don\u2019t have a track record of being very good on this,\u201d Dr Leibold added.<\/p>\n
Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said city building could play an \u201cauxiliary\u201d role in his country\u2019s war on terror by \u201celiminating the roots and soil\u201d in which terrorism had flourished.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrbanisation could help shrink the urban-rural divide, develop the economy and improve the living standard of less developed places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, the battle against \u201cextreme thought\u201d could not be won by focusing on living conditions alone. Urbanisation could even aggravate Xinjiang\u2019s security situation by triggering new social conflicts related to land disputes, Prof Li warned.<\/p>\n
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