On Xinjiang tour, Xi Jinping hails cops’ role in region

Xi’s tour, reported in state media late on Monday, was his first to the region since a ruling Communist Party conclave in November in which he ushered in a national security commission to combat foreign and domestic threats.

Xi has raised the pitch of his warnings on security threats after a spate of deadly attacks, including one in the southwestern city of Kunming in March in which 29 people were killed and 140 injured by knife-wielding attackers who the government said were militants from Xinjiang.

‘The Kashgar region is the front line in ant  ial Xinhua news agency citied Xi as telling paramilitary police in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in western Xinjiang that has been at the centre of much of the unrest.

‘The situation is grim and complicated. The local level police stations are fists and daggers,’ Xi said. The report, carried widely in state media, showed photographs of Xi touring police facilities. ‘You must have the most effective means to deal with violent terrorists,’ Xi said at a police station where he was pictured inspecting a wall of various kinds of truncheons.

‘Sweat more in peacetime to bleed less in wartime,’ he said. Uighurs are Turkic-language speaking Muslims. Many of them chafe at Chinese controls on their culture and religion.