Pairing Assistance Program (PAP)
A Chinese development program in which succesful regions in China were paired with ‘underdeveloped’ locations in Xinjiang, primarily in the south. The program initially involved 19 Chinese provinces and municipalities outside the region, all of which gained particular benefits from the region’s oil and gas, pledging to contribute 0.3%-0.6% of their fiscal revenue for ‘sister’ regions in the Uyghur region, mostly funneled through companies located in these ‘partner provinces.’^[ TWoU - Ch4 - Colonialism meets counterterrorism, 2002–2012]
The leading edge of the “new approach” to governing Xinjiang is the “pairing assistance” (dui kou 对口) scheme, under which provincial-level administrative units in eastern China provide specific regions in Xinjiang with massive injections of cash and in-kind support, plus technical and administrative assistance. The dui kou money, an estimated 10 billion yuan in 2011 alone, is for investment in agriculture, industry and mining, construction of large-scale infrastructure projects, improving “people’s livelihoods” and social welfare, and improving housing in rural and bingtuan areas.70 With its explicit purpose to transform administrative culture and social relations, the pairing assistance scheme epitomizes the logic of integration.^[Cliff, Thomas. “The partnership of stability in Xinjiang: state–society interactions following the July 2009 unrest.” The China Journal 68 (2012): 79-105. https://sci-hub.se/10.1086/666581]