China official urges education to stem terrorism

[WhiteTara]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/01/08/china_official_urges_education_to_stem_terrorism/
BEIJING—Rocked by a fresh outbreak of anti-government violence, officials in China's far western Xinjiang region are urging expanded free education to staunch support for Islamic separatists.

The appeal appeared to acknowledge that force alone will not vanquish pro-independence sentiment, although it was matched by a renewed call for high-pressure security tactics against terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.

Radicals among Xinjiang's native Turkic Uighur population have waged a long-simmering campaign against Chinese rule, although 2008 saw the worst outbreak of violence in recent years, intended -- authorities say -- to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.
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The plan specifically targets the region's most underdeveloped areas, where a mere 15 percent of all junior high graduates continued their studies, Zhao said. The last three additional years of school would be devoted to vocational education, he said.
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Culturally, religiously and linguistically distinct from the China's Han majority, Uighurs have long complained of economic marginalization by migrants who have flooded into Xinjiang since communist occupation in 1949. Like Tibetans, China's other restive minority, many Uighurs claim they were independent for much of their history.