China focuses attention on border areas near India and Central Asia
04 Mar 2011
Beijing: In what may be a tacit acknowledgment of its vulnerability China's parliament has issued an advisory to the government to overhaul its defence and administrative set up in border areas connected to India and other countries in south and Central Asia.
The advisory has been issued by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), one of the two houses of Chinese parliament.
The advice will impact the lives of minority Tibetans whose land remains in illegal occupation of the Han Chinese as well as Uighur Muslims in Sinkiang Uighur province (Xinjiang), which borders Pakistan and Central Asia.
CPPCC has made "suggestions for developing border defence and overhauling the border defence administration system", its chairman Jia Qinglin was quoted as saying at the annual session of the parliamentary body.
The CPPCC has suggested rapid urbanization to ensure the development of prefectures (or districts), which enjoy autonomy in the legal sense.
The 12th five-year plan beginning this year should provide a major impetus to the task of eliminating poverty and "fully implementing" the process of integration among the ethnic minorities in the border regions, he said.
Jia indicated the Communist Party will stick to decision to give a big push to development of the western region including Tibet and Xinjiang. This region has been left behind during the last three decades of industrialization focusing on eastern and southern China.
Xinjiang covers one-sixth of the total area of China. It is a region with the largest land area of all the provinces and autonomous regions in China.
Tibet covers the entire south-west of China and between them present the most vulnerable parts of China as periodic outbursts of anger and revolt amongst the local populace indicate.
