Policies for the restive Xinjiang region will for the first time be sketched out at a top-level meeting in Beijing this year.
Information revealed by state media indicates that security will remain at the top of Beijing's agenda. The issue of ethnic equality is likely to be addressed but little meaningful progress is expected.
Zhou Yongkang, the Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of security and law enforcement, announced at a preparatory meeting on Tuesday that a Xinjiang Work Symposium would be convened to plan for the region's 'faster development and long-running stability', China Central Television reported on Wednesday night.
It will be the first high-level conference called by the central government to set out policy for the Uygur-populated region, rocked by the nation's biggest and deadliest ethnic clashes in decades in July.
Five rounds of similar conferences have been held to frame policy for equally restive Tibet since the early 1980s, with the latest round taking place in Beijing last week.
The absence at the preparatory meeting of Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's hardline party secretary for 15 years, renewed speculation he could soon step down. 'There was a rumour that he is on his way out, so this work symposium will probably coincide with a new regional leadership,' Nicholas Bequelin, Human Rights Watch researcher, said.