Xinjiang chairman pledges firm crackdown on terrorism

Fighting terrorism and maintaining stability will be the top priority in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said the regional government's chairman on Wednesday.  [Special coverage]

The regional government will firmly crack down on any forms of terrorism, extremism and separatism, said Nur Bekri, chairman of the regional government, at a panel discussion of the Xinjiang delegation during the annual parliamentary session that opened Wednesday.

Last year the region was hit by several brutal terrorist attacks, which took innocent lives and caused huge property loss, he said.

"While economic and social development have progressed well and people's lives have improved in Xinjiang, the battle against separatism is still harsh and complicated," he said. "Terrorists never rest."

Nur Bekri strongly denounced the terrorist attack at a railway station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming late Saturday, when knife-wielding assailants killed 29 civilians and injured another 143.

Any country under the rule of law and any individual with conscience will not tolerate such an act, he said.

"We should see through the ugly nature of terrorists. They are anti-humanity and sociopathic."

The people in Xinjiang support the Party and the government's efforts to fight terrorists and safeguard stability, he said.

Terrorists are common enemies to all people, including every ethnic group in Xinjiang, he said.

"They do not represent any ethnic group, and their activities are not about ethnic or religious issues," he said. "The battle against them is life-or-death."