Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for a “great wall of iron” to safeguard the restive western region of Xinjiang after a top official said Islamist separatists pose the “most prominent” challenge to the country’s stability.
Xi make the comments at a meeting of Xinjiang’s lawmakers on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, marking his first ever visit to the regional delegation since taking office.
Beijing has long said it faces a determined campaign by a group known as the East Turkestan Independence Movement, or ETIM, in Xinjiang, where hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in attacks and unrest between mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese.
“(ETIM) is the most prominent challenge to China’s social stability, economic development and national security,” Cheng Guoping, State Commissioner for counterterrorism and security, was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.
The comments come about a week after a video purportedly by the Islamic State group surfaced showing Uighurs training in Iraq, vowing to plant their flag in China and saying that blood will “flow in rivers”.