The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

Chinese government was aware of this problem
and wanted to address it before the onset
of the global financial crisis (see China’s 11th
Five-Year Plan for 2006-10 and Hu Jintao’s report
to the 17th CCP National Congress). The
wakeup call thus put much urgency on China’s
agenda. The Chinese leadership hoped the $500
billion stimulus plan launched in December
2008 would be on target to help China restructure
its economic development (a main portion
of the stimulus fund was earmarked to develop
China’s domestic market and expand internal
demand [发展国内市场,扩大内需 ]).
• The large-scale riots in Tibet (March 2008) and
Xinjiang (June 2009) highlighted the fact that
while China had a monumental mission of unification
with Taiwan and consolidating control
of the disputed ocean territories in the East and
South China Seas, it had not yet achieved internal
harmony and national unity. China’s homeland
security is still at stake. Back in 2000, the
Chinese government launched a “Great Development
Program for the Western Regions (西
部大开发计划).” It was an attempt to help China’s
backward western regions catch up with
the rapidly approaching well-off societies in
China’s eastern coastal areas and improve the
life of the Tibetans and Uyghurs who form the
majority of the western region population so
that they would not join their struggling compatriots-in-exile
to fight for independence (East
Turkistan for the Uyghurs). The riots indicated
in part that this program had not quite borne
fruit. The CCP leaders have vowed to step up
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