China’s Xi, in Xinjiang, signals no change to Uyghur policy

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the northwestern Xinjiang region this week amid concerns over China’s detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic native minorities. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi called Xinjiang a “core area and a hub” in China’s program of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang’s native Uyghur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of separatist violence. Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as a form of cultural genocide. The U.S. and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans.