China's Top Lawmaker Stresses Regional Autonomy in XinjiangTo maintain national unity and oppose ethnic splittismChina's top lawmaker Li Peng Thursday reiterated the need to carry out the Law on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities to the letter in a bid to maintain national unity and promote social and economic development in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China.Joining discussion with the Xinjiang delegation attending the annual session of the country's top legislature, Li called for efforts to maintain national unity and oppose ethnic splittism. Preferential policiesLi, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), also emphasized the need for more preferential policies to encourage economic development in areas inhabited by minority ethnic groups.Attention should be paid to inheriting and carrying forward the fine traditional cultures of various ethnic groups in the region, and learning from advanced cultural heritage of other nationalities around the world, said the top lawmaker. To promote social and economic developmentLi described the situation in Xinjiang in recent years as united, stable and economically improving, adding the country's Western Development Strategy launched in the past two years has and will create new opportunities for Xinjiang.He urged Xinjiang to promote social and economic development through sciences and technology, while improving ecological and environmental protection and opening not only to the economically developed areas of the country, but to neighboring countries.
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