ABSTRACT
The economic biases towards coastal regions, urban areas and certain sections of the minority population led to localisation of poverty and underdevelopment in Xinjiang during the reform period. The discovery of huge oil and gas reserve in Xinjiang made the regional economy excessively reliant on heavy extractive industry at the cost of manufacturing and light industry. The local Uyghur people of the region feel they are not getting their share because most of the profit from energy and mineral exploitation of Xinjiang enrich the eastern provinces and helps to sustain China’s rapidly growing economy. The conspicuous absence of the Uyghur labour force in profit-making industries and the reduced scope of participating in trade have created a deep sense of deprivation among the Uyghurs. This chapter analyses the economic dimension responsible for the Uyghur resentments and conflicts in Xinjiang and examines official pronouncement of common prosperity and actual situation at the level of policy implementation. The predominant presence of Han cadres in the decision-making process and independent existence of militia-cum-production units of the XPCC, in fact, infringe on the political and economic autonomy of the minority nationalities of the region.
