China to Double Xinjiang Spending to Boost Stability

Investment in China’s Xinjiang province, roiled by ethnic violence last year, will double in the next five years as President Hu Jintao seeks stability in the country’s second-biggest oil producing region.

Hu pledged to raise per capita gross domestic product in the sparsely populated region to the national average by 2015 and increase incomes and the level of public services to the average of the country’s western region, the official Xinhua news agency reported late yesterday after a three-day meeting on the plan. Shares of companies based in Xinjiang surged.