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Hu Jintao promises to stifle unrest and make Uighurs rich

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), in a major speech published yesterday, pledged to bring economic prosperity to the nation's 55 ethnic minorities, but in a veiled warning to Tibetan and Uighur Muslim "separatists" vowed to stifle ethnic unrest.

In the speech, which was carried by the communist nation's leading newspapers, Hu acknowledged that raising China's minority groups out of poverty was key to alleviating ethnic strife.

But he also insisted that tough measures to fight "splittism" would not be relaxed.

"We will bring into play ethnic officials and the masses to crack down on ethnic splittism forces and activities in accordance with the law," Hu told top communist officials Friday in Beijing.

"We will firmly take control of the initiative in the struggle and resolutely oppose hostile forces inside and outside China who use ethnic issues to infiltrate and sabotage."

Following the Cold War, ethnic separatist, religious fundamentalist and terrorist forces have been active in China's neighbors, Hu said.

"They are trying every means to infiltrate and sabotage the country," he added.

In an apparent reference to criticism that massive government investment into Tibet and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region was mainly enriching Han Chinese, Hu said more must be done to bring economic prosperity to ethnic regions.

Per-capita GDP in ethnic regions was only 67 percent of the national average and the per-capita net income of farmers in ethnic regions was 71 percent of the national average, Hu said.

"Efforts should be made to create conditions to narrow and finally close the gap between development levels of various ethnic groups," he said.

"We should neither ignore their existence nor try to change them by force."
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