China | Controlled growth

China’s efforts to lift Xinjiang’s economy may smother it

Prison camps and forced labour are unlikely to produce economic dynamism

|AKTO

CHINESE OFFICIALS used to insist that social harmony in Xinjiang could be achieved only by developing the far-western region’s economy. But in 2014 the government began to argue that for economic development to occur, stability was needed first. This small shift in wording heralded the fiercest storm.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Controlled growth”

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