BEIJING: Officials in China's far western Xinjiang region are urging expanding free education in areas where there is 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 separatism and religious extremism.
Radicals among Xinjiang's native Turkic Uighur population have waged a long-simmering campaign against Chinese rule, and last year saw the worst outbreak of violence in recent years. The authorities accused the activists of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.
Students in the traditionally Muslim region who quit after middle school become easy targets for radicals, the head of the regional education department was quoted as saying by the official China Daily yesterday.
Keeping them in school for 12 years rather than nine would help them get jobs and better shape their 'ideology and mentality', Mr Zhao Dezhong said.
The plan targets the region's most underdeveloped areas, where a mere 15 per cent of all junior high graduates continued their studies and the last three additional years of school would be devoted to vocational education, he said.
The plan would cost around US$500 million (S$740 million) and has yet to win central government approval, he added.
Last year, the government said 1,295 people were arrested in Xinjiang for state security crimes, up from the nationwide total of 742 arrests on such charges in 2007.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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