Police in Xinjiang have staged their largest anti-riot drill since deadly unrest rocked the regional capital, Urumqi, in July last year.
Beijing, apparently adopting a carrot-and-stick approach, has also launched a training programme for elite cadres around the country before sending them off to 'help with Xinjiang's development'.
The measures follow a top-level meeting in Beijing last month that mapped out development plans for the region for the next 10 years, following the instability brought by the violent unrest on July 5.
Thursday's drill, involving nearly 1,000 armed police and special police, simulated a riot triggered by a traffic accident in Urumqi.
The city's police initiated a first-level anti-riot contingency plan as 'bystanders' swelled into a big crowd around the accident scene and later committed crimes such as looting, arson and vandalism. Special police, SWAT teams, and armed police were then called in to contain the situation. A China News Service report said the drill was designed to test the response of different police divisions to an emergency situation and clarify the division of labour.
While the drill sought to imitate the intensity of last year's unrest, it covered up a key trigger of the deadly rioting - ethnic tensions between Han Chinese and Uygurs. Aside from coming up with a far less sensitive cause for the simulated unrest, no Uygur-looking participants could be seen in photographs taken by official media.
July's rioting, the biggest clash between Han Chinese and Uygurs in recent history, began with a seemingly peaceful protest in Urumqi by Uygur students upset over the deaths of two Uygurs in a Guangdong factory brawl. But events later took a violent turn, with nearly 200 lives lost, mostly Han Chinese but also members of other ethnic groups, including Uygurs.