Resource-rich Xinjiang crucial to China

BEIJING (AFP) – Resource rich and a buffer with Central Asia, Xinjiang is vital to China's economic and geopolitical interests.

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With an economy based on mining, agriculture and energy, the vast area has developed rapidly since the 1980s, attracting a wave of Han Chinese migrants but leaving many local Muslim Uighurs on the sidelines. Last week's violence in the region's capital Urumqi -- the worst ethnic unrest in China in decades that left at least 184 people dead -- will change little about the government's policies there, according to analysts. More...