The desire for a separate state is alive and kicking in China's remote western region of Xinjiang, though a security crackdown has curbed violent protests against Chinese rule. From the capital of Urumqi and the central city of Korla, to the ancient oasis of Khotan in the south and Kashgar in the west, residents point to uneasy relations between the ruling Chinese and the ethnic Uighur minority. There is no way. The Turkic-speaking Uighurs is Moslem and make up around 47 percent of the region's 17 million people.
Chinese officials say the number involved in separatist activities is small.
Authorities are trying to bring the ethnic minorities into the fold with concrete improvements in living standards. We have cracked down severely on these activities. There have been big improvements in people's lives. The leadership of the Communist Party has given us today's Xinjiang so most minorities do not engage in separatism, they oppose it he said. In a report earlier this year, Amnesty said it had recorded 210 death sentences and 190 executions in the region since 1997, mostly of Uighurs convicted for subversion or terrorism.