Growth in Xinjiang urged

A senior Chinese official said at a meeting in Beijing Tuesday that "leapfrog development and lasting stability" should be taken as the key to dealing with challenges and problems in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

"Strengthening ethnic unity and social stability guarantees the multi-ethnic region's lasting stability," said Zhou Yongkang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Zhou called for more enterprises, human resources, capital and technology to be introduced to Xinjiang and more efforts to solve the urgent and practical problems of the masses. "Work in townships, communities and villages should be prioritized in order to root out the soil breeding the 'three forces' of terrorism, ethnic secessionism and religious extremism," Zhou added.

The concept of leapfrog development and lasting stability was first proposed by President Hu Jintao in a speech at the central working conference on Xinjiang in May, 2010. During the conference, many preferential policies were introduced, including favorable tax rates and an investment plan of over 2 trillion yuan ($320 billion), which have been implemented since 2011.

"The development in Xinjiang since the conference has been amazing," said Li Guoqiang, deputy director with the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to the Xinjiang statistics bureau, the region's GDP in the first quarter of this year topped 114.3 billion yuan ($18.3 billion), a growth of 11.2 percent from last year and 3.1 percent higher than the country's average, Xinhua reported.　

"Preferential policies of the central government plus abundant natural resources in Xinjiang have drawn many programs and a lot of capital to the region," said Li.

Sun Weimin, vice president of Suning, a popular electronics chain store in China, announced that their sales in Xinjiang had doubled several times over the past two years and their growth rate is twice the country's average.　

Home to a number of different ethnic groups such as the Uyghur, Han and Hui, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region currently has a population of over 21 million, according to Xinjiang authorities.

"Religion and ethnicity are the two key focuses of the government's work in the area," said Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic studies at the Minzu University of China.

"China respects citizen's freedom of religious belief and protects their regular religious activities. But any form of terrorism or ethnic secessionism under the name of religion is prohibited," Xiong added.