China to double spending for bilingual education in Xinjiang.

BEIJING, Aug. 3 Kyodo

The Chinese government will more than double investment in the riot-hit Xinjiang region from a year-earlier level to 830 million yuan ($121 million) in 2009, the China Daily reported Monday, quoting local officials.

The investment will target the construction and renovation of 465 bilingual kindergartens in Kashgar, Hotan and other parts of southern Xinjiang and authorities hope bilingual education ''can be an effective cure in bridging communication among all peoples in Xinjiang,'' the daily said.

About 60 percent of Xinjiang's population is ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, Kazaks and Mongolians.

Bilingual education in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which began around 1992, was designed to improve the standard of Mandarin among ethnic minority graduates so they could be more competitive in the workplace, the paper quoted Xinjiang Gov. Nur Bekri as saying.

The Chinese government funded 214 bilingual kindergartens in southern Xinjiang last year for 400 million yuan.

July 5 riots in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi -- which stemmed from discord between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese, China's majority ethnic group -- killed at least 197 people and left 1,800 injured after China's worst ethnic violence in decades.