Word: turkestan
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...whittling away, amid a steady influx of Han Chinese, who now dominate the local economy. Today, about 70% of Urumqi is Han. The result: resentment and unrest. The past decade has seen a string of bombings by suspected Uighur separatists - the U.S. has classified one organization, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, as a terrorist one - and stern crackdowns by the Chinese authorities. Around last year's Beijing Olympics, an attack in the historic Xinjiang town of Kashgar killed 17 Chinese police. But the region's most serious outbreak of violence took place in Urumqi over three days beginning July...
...recognized them as equal citizens of the communist state, Uighurs have always had an uncomfortable relationship with the authorities in Beijing. In 1933, amid the turbulence of China's civil wars, Uighur leaders in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar declared a short-lived independent Republic of East Turkestan. But Xinjiang was wholly subsumed into the new state forged by China's victorious Communists after 1949, with Beijing steadily tightening its grip on the oil rich territory. Its official designation as an "autonomous region" belies rigid controls from the central government over Xinjiang, and a policy of settling hundreds...
...Widespread Uighur alienation has prompted some to resort to violence. Following the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., Beijing convinced Washington to list the little-known East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organization. Some Uighurs were captured by coalition forces in Afghanistan and sent to Guantánamo, but many have subsequently been released. The specter of Uighur terrorism loomed over Xinjiang after a series of attacks and bombings hit the province during the build-up to last year's Beijing Olympics. The extent of the ETIM's tactical capabilities and its connections to other more prominent terrorist outfits...
...China blames ongoing unrest in the far-flung province on separatist groups seeking an independent state of East Turkestan. During the 1980s and early '90s, Xinjiang experienced a number of bombings and protests, but it had been quiet up until the time of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. In the lead-up to the Games and after, separatist groups allegedly staged several fatal attacks on Chinese security forces. Responsibility for two deadly bus bombings in Shanghai and Yunnan province during the same period, meanwhile, was also claimed by a Uighur separatist group, a claim Beijing denies, calling the incidents...
...than five days before the flame was lit, there was a shocking attack by Muslim separatists in the city of Kashgar in China's far western Xinjiang region that left 16 policemen dead and equal number badly wounded. A few days later, a shadowy militant group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party issued a video asserting plans to attack the Olympics. "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings or any place the Chinese are," the group's spokesman warned Muslims...