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April 24th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Xinjiang, a region about twice the size of Turkey, is home to around nine
million ethnic Uighurs, many of whom complain of religious and cultural
repression by Chinese authorities. The region is regularly hit by unrest.
Officials and state media blame the unrest on “terrorists” but some
experts say the government has produced little evidence of an organised
terrorist threat, adding the violence stems more from long-standing local
resentment.
China has repeatedly accused ethnic Uighurs of carrying out terrorist
activities in the province, where 20 men were jailed in March on terrorism
charges, which a Uighur rights group branded “repressive”.
Riots between Uighurs and members of China’s Han ethnic majority in Xinjiang’s
capital Urumqi in 2009 killed around 200 people, leading the ruling
Communist Party to tighten surveillance and boost investment in the region.
The province saw more than half of China’s “endangering state security”
trials last year, but is home to less than two per cent of the country’s
population, suggesting “ethnic discrimination”, the Dui Hua
Foundation advocacy group said.
According to official figures, 46 per cent of Xinjiang’s population is Uighur,
while another 39 per cent are Han Chinese, after millions moved to the area
in recent decades.
Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Barney
Henderson
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