From Wall Street Journal:
This outpost of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is home to nearly 20,000 ethnic Han Chinese, transplanted from China’s eastern heartland to this arid border territory — which is home to a large Turkic Muslim population.
Such settlements, combined with large infrastructure investments and, at times, heavy-handed measures to silence dissent, were supposed to cement government authority in Xinjiang. But a new protest by Turkic Uighurs and continued unrest in Tibetan areas illustrate the limitations of Beijing’s approach to dealing with minorities.
Roughly 2.3 million Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, now live in settlements set up by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an outgrowth of the People’s Liberation Army forces that occupied Xinjiang in 1949. The Corps has built highways, railroads, power plants and universities.
Read also Ethnic unrest continues in China by Howard W. French, 70 people from China’s minority Uighur ethnic group reportedly arrested from Los Angeles Times, and Xinjiang curbs protests incited by Islamic extremists from Shanghai Daily.
