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Reuters

The Chinese government will spend 1.875 billion yuan (US$298.43 million) to improve irrigation systems in the heavily ethnic Uygur part of the violence-prone region of Xinjiang, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday.
The government has increasingly turned its focus to development in southern Xinjiang in recent years, in an implicit recognition of the economic causes of some of the unrest there.
Xinjiang official vows to continue ‘intense’ campaign against separatists
Xinjiang, a huge region in the far west bordering Central Asia, has long been a security worry for Beijing, which has led a massive clampdown after deadly bouts of ethnic violence it blames on Islamist and separatist extremists among the Uygur population.

Xinhua said the funds will be used to upgrade irrigation facilities and promote water-saving technology to boost farm output in southern Xinjiang, where it said most of the region’s poorest people live.
Southern Xinjiang is a major producer of cotton and fruit.
“However, a lack of water and outdated irrigation systems have long hampered agricultural development in the region,” Xinhua said.
It did not provide a time frame for the investment.
Helpless husbands despair in Pakistan as their Uygur wives, children vanish in China
Aksu, Kashgar and Hotan in southern Xinjiang are among the poorest parts of China, with more than 1.6 million people living below the poverty line as of the end of 2017, the report added.
These three areas have also been at the epicentre of what China terms its war on terror, with hundreds having died in violence over the past few years.
The Uygurs are a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language.
Rights groups and exiled Uygurs say repressive Chinese government policies are more to blame for the unrest than any organised Islamist or separatist groups. China denies any repression in Xinjiang.
Uygurs around the world rally in protest against Chinese security campaign in Xinjiang
But recognising the economic roots of some of the violence and frustration of many young Uygurs at missing out on China’s economic boom, Beijing has increased its focus on southern Xinjiang, pumping in money and encouraging development.


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Xinjiang

China to pump US$298 million into irrigation upgrade for southern Xinjiang

A self-driving tractor – part of efforts to promote smart farming – sows cotton seeds in a demonstration field in the county of Kuqa in Xinjiang. Photo: Xinhua

(FILES) This file photo taken on June 28, 2017 shows a man overlooking a section of the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway (R) and the Karakoram mountain range near Tashkurgan in China's western Xinjiang province, near the China-Pakistan border. Families of many Pakistani merchants living in China's far west have disappeared as a growing network of shadowy "reeducation centres" sweep up the region's Muslim minority group, the Uighurs, over fears of Islamic militancy crossing the border from Pakistan. / AFP PHOTO / Johannes EISELE / TO GO WITH PAKISTAN-CHINA-POLITICS-RELIGION-RIGHTS,FOCUS by Gohar Abbas and Ben Dooley

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Funds will be used to improve systems and promote water-saving technology


China to pump US$298 million into irrigation upgrade for southern Xinjiang

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Funds will be used to improve systems and promote water-saving technology

Funds will be used to improve systems and promote water-saving technology