This week, China unveiled 96 km-long (60 miles-long) expressway in Xinjiang, the poor but resource-rich Western province that is home to China\u2019s restive Uighur minority. In October, three people from Xinjiang intentionally crashed a car in Tiananmen Square, killing themselves and two tourists, and Beijing has been conducting harsh crackdowns on the region for years. The four-lane Wucaiwan-Dahuangshan expressway is part of an expensive campaign by Beijing to soothe discontent in the region, but is seen by some critics as an \u201ceconomic band-aid\u201c (pdf) for the region\u2019s bigger social problems. \u201cThe completion of the highway\u2026will play a significant role in the development of the local economy,\u201d state-media People\u2019s Daily reported (link in Chinese).<\/p>\n
This week, China unveiled 96 km-long (60 miles-long) expressway in Xinjiang<\/a>, the poor but resource-rich Western province that is home to China\u2019s restive Uighur minority. In October, three people from Xinjiang intentionally crashed a car in Tiananmen Square, killing themselves and two tourists, and Beijing has been conducting harsh crackdowns on the region for years.<\/p>\n The four-lane Wucaiwan-Dahuangshan expressway is part of an <\/span>expensive campaign<\/a> by Beijing to soothe discontent in the region, but is seen by some critics as an \u201c<\/span>economic band-aid<\/a>\u201c (pdf) for the region\u2019s bigger social problems. \u201cThe completion of the highway\u2026will play a significant role in the development of the local economy,\u201d state-media <\/span>People\u2019s Daily reported<\/a> (link in Chinese).<\/span><\/p>\n The expressway improves access to one of China\u2019s largest coal fields as well as expand Xinjiang\u2019s sorely inadequate transportation infrastructure in the north of the region\u2014but not in the south where the majority of Uighur Muslims live. Beijing officials have been calling for <\/span>improving the livelihood of residents<\/a> (pdf) across the whole of the region, not just the north where the bulk of development was focused throughout the 1980s and 1990s. State enterprises are to invest in the region\u2019s infrastructure, especially transportation.<\/span><\/p>\n Xinjiang accounts for <\/span>40% of the country\u2019s supply of coal<\/a> as well as a large portion of China\u2019s onshore oil and gas deposits. Because the region is some 2,400 kilometers, or 1,500 miles, from the power-needy eastern regions of China, <\/span>improving transportation<\/a> is vital to keeping Chinese factories and cars fully fueled-up. The road is just part of <\/span>150,000 kilometers<\/a> (link in Chinese) of expressway that officials plan to lay in the region by 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n