From AFP, a report on the number of arrests last year in the Muslim-dominant Xinjiang area:
China arrested almost 1,300 people for terrorism, religious extremism or other state security charges in the country’s Muslim-majority western Xinjiang region last year, state press said Sunday.
The vast desert area bordering Central Asia is home to more than eight million members of China’s ethnic Uighur population, Muslims who have complained for decades of political and religious repression.
The Procuratorial Daily said the arrests came as the government made “maintaining social stability” a priority last year, when Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic Games in August.
