There is no excuse for the recent violence in northwest China's Xinjiang region, to which any government would react in a similar way as the Chinese government did, a British China hand said on Tuesday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Andrew Methven, communication manager of a Britain-China consulting company, expressed his support for the measures being taken by the Chinese government to stabilize the region after the July 5 riot in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"I don't think that violence is an effective way to deal with any issue. Any government or country in the world would have to take similar action or have a similar response to what's happened in Xinjiang," he said.

Methven, who prides himself on being a China hand, has worked for a company specializing in providing consultancy services for both British and Chinese cultural organizations and commercial enterprises for several years.

"I was very surprised to hear of the serious riots in Xinjiang recently and I found it hard to imagine what it would be like there compared to how I remember it," he said.

Methven travelled to Xinjiang during his first trip to China in 2002. "When I got to Xinjiang, I found the people very warm and friendly and there was always someone to help," he said.

During the one-month trip, Methven went to the cities of Urumqi, Turfan and Kashgar and many small places on the southern Silk Road.

He said he was very interested in the mix of Han and Uygur culture in Xinjiang, adding that Han people and Uygurs mixed and got along very well with each other.

"I think this incident does not reflect either a religious or a race issue," Methven said.

The Chinese government responded very well to this incident both in terms of the speed of its reaction in controlling the situation, and, more importantly, in terms of maintaining transparency with Western media, he noted.

"I understand that a media center was set up in Urumqi very soon after the main violence and Western media were allowed to move freely in the city," Methven said.

He said the Chinese Embassy in London also did a very good job at actively engaging with Western media.

"I saw or heard interviews on Radio 4, Channel 4 news, and also in the Guardian newspaper," Methven said.

It was a good approach for China to provide the facts for Western media shortly after the incident, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2009)