Yale Global, 19/03/10:http://yaleglobal. yale.edu/ content/xinjiang -where-chinas- worry-intersects -world The recent killing of a Uighur terrorist in Afghanistan has brought new focus on the ethnic group in Chinas western border region.of Xinjiang. The situation of the Uighurs an ethnic Turkic, Muslim minority reveals much about Chinas internal conduct and external worries, according to China expert Christopher M. Clarke. Hailing from Xinjiang province, Uighurs have seen their majority in that province erode and income inequality expand as Beijing populated the area with Han Chinese and supported the growth of state-owned enterprises. There is little wonder that violence erupts in the province. But even without such violence, China would still be leery of developments in Xinjiang, which borders a number of unstable Central Asian states as well as Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Plus, the province hosts vast natural resource wealth and many nuclear testing installations. Any one of these situations could add to the vulnerability of the province. China has attempted to ease tensions in the region, cooperating with neighbors over natural resource exploration. But the US military presence in Afghanistan adds a further wrinkle to an already crumpled tapestry. In the end, Xinjiang is likely to remain a sore spot for Beijing as it worries about pressure from all sides regionally and tries to dampen unrest internally. YaleGlobal Xinjiang Where Chinas Worry Intersects the World Regional instability adds to concerns about restive Muslim minority Christopher M. Clarke WASHINGTON: The February 15 killing of militant Uighur leader Abdul Haq al-Turkistani by an American drone in the border regions of Pakistan highlights Chinas continued sensitivity about its remote and vulnerable western region, Xinjiang. It also brings into focus the role of the Afghanistan- Pakistan region as an international sanctuary for Islamic militants and the reasons for Chinas worries about social stability and potential terrorist threats in Xinjiang. Chinas neuralgia about security in Xinjiang will continue and perhaps even increase as big power competition for influence and resources in Central Asia and its ties to the rest of the world continue to expand. Chinas troubles with the minority Uighurs are not new. But with the break up of the Soviet Union and the rising Islamist Taliban in once Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, the regional dynamic has changed. Since the early 1990s, China has faced recurrent waves of unrest in Xinjiang and widespread acts of violence, some of which seem to have been terrorist acts by disgruntled Uighurs. The 2008 attempted hijacking of an airplane in China by three people armed with flammable liquid was one of the latest and scariest examples. There also have been several attacks against perceived Uighur collaborators in China and against Chinese interests outside the country. The capture of Uighurs fighting against coalition forces in Afghanistan, some two dozen of whom were imprisoned in Guantanamo, also indicate that China faces a real threat of terrorist acts against its interests at home and abroad. The Chinese, however, have aroused skepticism by dubiously attributing dozens of explosions and incidents of civil unrest to instigation by East Turkistan terrorist forces. Officials, for example, blamed an August 2008 attack