President Hu Jintao is visiting Xinjiang for the first time since the deadly riots broke out in July. From the New York Times:
According to Xinhua, the state news agency, Mr. Hu visited rural areas and factories; a major oil center; and the regional capital, Urumqi, where the rioting occurred.
On Tuesday, he told government officials and security forces that stability was a top priority in the region. “The key to our work in Xinjiang is to properly handle the relation between development and stability in the region,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, official media has denied reports that almost 200 people were killed in a prison in Xinjiang following the riots, AFP reports:
The Global Times carried the denial two days after Rebiya Kadeer, who now lives in the United States, quoted an unnamed policeman as saying 196 Uighurs detained in a clampdown in Xinjiang “were tortured and killed”.
“I have no idea where the figure of 196 comes from,” said Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the government in Xinjiang, a Muslim-majority region in northwest China, according to the English-language paper.
“The number of officially arrested remains at 83.”
