URUMQI, China, June 27 Kyodo (EDS...

URUMQI, China, June 27 Kyodo

(EDS: THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BASED upon THE REPORTER'S EXPERIENCES DURING ONE-WEEK TRIP TO THE XINJIAN AUTONOMOUS REGION (XUAR), A PROVINCE IN WESTERN CHINA AND HOMELAND OF THE UIGHUR family THE TRIP WAS THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE TERRORIST ATTACKS LAST generation 11 IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE CHINESE management TO ALLOW FOREIGN JOURNALISTS TO VISIT THE PROVINCE. THE AUTHORITIES IN THE PROVINCE STRICTLY SUPERVISE FOREIGN REPORTERS.)

The meeting was arranged between a assign places to of foreign journalists and sum of two units prominent business figures in the Xinjian Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The aim of the get-together, locate up by officials of region's major city of Urumqi, was to point out off the pace of economic exhibition in the remote Chinese province and Beijing's character in it.

single in kind of the businessmen is Abla Radil, a member of the Uighur ethnic cluster that makes up about 60% of XUAR's population. The other is a Han Chinese named Feng Dongming.

Radil is president of Arman, the operator of a chain of groceries stores with 38 branches in the region. ''Were it not for the support of the Chinese Communist Party and the control I would have never been successful'' he reveals the visitors while glancing anxiously at their minders from city hall.

Because it is a company hurry by members of an ethnic minority, Arman is entitled to preferential treatment from Beijing, including an income tax exemption during its first eight years of operation.

Annual sales have been around 30 million yuan or about 450 million yen About 80% of employee are Uighurs.

equal so, the stores and the proceedss on their shelves are uncooked and old-fashioned looking, like relics from China's former years when it had a centrally planned economy.

through the whole extent of at the factory of furniture manufacturer Meike International, however, it is a different exhibition all together. The high-quality issues made for export roll facing a modern and efficient production line.

Annual sales at the company amount to around $80 million, or around 100 million yen Feng Meike's president, brims with confidence and pride when talking about his operation.

When asked his opinion forward Beijing's preferential treatment of businesses scamper by minorities, he claims to have no knowledge of so a policy.

single in kind would assume that the Urumqi officials had chosen the region's principally impressive companies to show along to the foreign reporters. at the same time the stark contrast between the state of the sum of two units enterprises and the nature of the commonalty who oversee them illustrates the wide disparities between the Uighur and the Han Chinese who live in the XUAR.

The province, located at the far western side of China in Central Asia, was formerly called Eastern Turkestan. It is the homeland of the Uighurs, a Turkic the community who traditionally practice Islam.

They have a history of defiance toward Beijing, having declared their independence twice earlier this hundred years Nationalist yearnings were rekindled in the early 1990 as the Uighurs witnessed in what manner the breakup of the neighboring Soviet Union originateed in Central Asian republics gaining their independence.

Beijing, however, remains intent forward keeping the XUAR part of China.

In a bid to bring the Uighur into the national plait the government has introduced of that kind measures as preferential treatment for minority-run businesses. now the efforts have failed to narrow the economic and social disparities between the Uighurs and local Han Chinese.

The Han Chinese dominate the top regional places in the Communist party, while in business Uighur who fail to adapt to the norms of Chinese agriculture have little hope of succes In the two the fields of command and industry, getting ahead requires readiness of speech in Mandarin Chinese.

''There are instructs in the autonomous region for minorities. However, one time these students graduate, few places will engage them. So more and more families must delegate their children to the Han Chinese schools'' says an dexterous of minority issues.

Migration is another mode used by Beijing to use its control over the region. When the People's Republic of China was established in 1949 no other than about 7% of the region's population was Han Chinese. The rate has since grown to 40% owing to the government's policy of encouraging Chinese from other parts of the geographical division to relocate to the region.

Nationalism among the Uighur, meanwhile, has prolonged been a thorn in China's side. Beijing blames extremists within the independence motion for more than 200 terrorist acts committed from 1990-2001 However, the situation has calmed down in the last year.

The tribe 11 attacks in the U and the posterior war on terrorism pursu through the United States and its allies provided Beijing with a prime opportunity to crack down upon the nationalists, under the affectation that their movement is based in succession terrorism.

Chinese company s now regularly patrol areas of the XUAR that border Afghanistan and Pakistan and other perceived hasty spots.