Mandarin lessons 'help fight terror'

URUMQI: Teaching Mandarin to students in the remote Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is helping the fight against terrorism, chariman of the autonomous region Nur Bekri said.

"Terrorists from neighboring countries mainly target Uygurs that are relatively isolated from mainstream society as they cannot speak Mandarin. They are then tricked into terrorist activities," Bekri said.

Bilingual education has been gradually rolled out in the northwestern prefecture since 2002. Mandarin is now widely taught in pre-schools and kindergartens to prepare children for school life in a second language environment.