Three-year plan aims to bring 400,000 people out of poverty in the region amid concerns of a rise in armed groups.
China plans to pull 400,000 people out of dire poverty this year in its restive Xinjiang region as the central government fears a rise in the ranks of local armed groups.
A three-year poverty eradication plan will focus on the northwestern region’s 22 poorest counties, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
China launched a major security operation in the Muslim-majority territory in response to deadly violence that erupted in recent years that Beijing blames on ethnic Uighur «separatists».
Xinjiang is home to about 10 million Uighur Muslims who say they routinely face discrimination along with cultural and religious repression. Beijing denies the allegations.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in violence between Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, and migrants from the Han Chinese ethnic majority, especially in the Uighur dominated southern part of Xinjiang.
