ABSTRACT
China’s largely Turkic Muslim Xinjiang (Uyghur) Autonomous Region has been considered by the national leadership as the country’s frontline in the fight against separatist terrorism since the 1990s. To forestall and punish acts of organized and premeditated violence, different administrations in Xinjiang have employed a “hard” repressive strategy, a “soft” reward-based strategy, or a “middling” surveillance/monitoring strategy, and sometimes a combination of all three. Many discontented Uyghurs see the government’s approaches to dealing with ethnic unrest as a means to achieve its integrationist/assimilationist ends, and this perception does not bode well for the state’s endeavor to ensure a more peaceful, and stable society in Xinjiang.
