China conducted its 2004 anti-hijacking drill in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Wednesday morning.

The drill consists of blitz on hijackers and rescue operations for wrecked planes. More than 600 people from departments of civil aviation, public security, foreign affairs, safety, health and fire fighting, as well as the air force and armed police, took part in the drill.

Wang Lequan, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and secretary of the CPC regional committee, observed the drill at the scene and urged great efforts must be made to beef up precautionary measures and resolutely crack down on all hijacking of civilian aircraft.

The drill was jointly organized by the national leading group on handling hijacking incidents and a corresponding leading group in Xinjiang.

Yang Yuanyuan, deputy head of the national leading group and director of China's General Administration of Civil Aviation, said the drill, which served as an overall examination of how hijacking is handled, would help improve the mechanism of the country's anti-hijacking work so as to effectively cope with all kinds of hijacking incidents, particularly those related to international cooperation in fighting terrorism.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2004)