Xinjiang ("new frontier" in Chinese) or Eastern Turkestan is without doubt the first extremely sensitive zone in China, at least in terms of ethnic conflict between the Hans newcomers and muslim minorities who have a longer history of occupation of those areas. Spread from Mongolia to Afghanistan, it is the biggest Chinese province. I was in the north western part of Xinjiang in the prefecture of ILI, called Yining outside of China and Ghulja by the Turkophones, in May and June 2009...