Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the people of Xinjiang region to foster ethnic unity to erect a "great wall of iron" that could help to stamp out insurgency activities in the country's only Muslim-dominated province.

"Just as one loves one's own eyes, one must love ethnic unity; just as one takes one's own livelihood seriously, one must take ethnic unity seriously," Xi told a delegation of Xinjiang lawmakers.

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The Xinjiang delegation met the Chinese leader on the sidelines of the annual parliament session, marking Xi's first ever meeting with top lawmakers from the insurgency-hit region since taking office.   

A daily evening show broadcasted on state television showed Xi meeting the delegates who were dressed in traditional Uighur dresses, with one delegate gifting the president a photo of a Uighur family whose relative once met Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.

The timing of this meeting looks very conspicuous given that Xinjiang region has witnessed a surge in violence in recent months, prompting Chinese authorities to carry massive anti-terror rallies in the capital city of Urumqi and other sensitive cities of the region.

The rallies were seen as a show of strength against the Uyghur Muslim insurgents, who have been engaged in a low-intensity insurgency war against the Chinese government for many years now.  The Uyghur insurgents aim to establish Xinjiang as a separate Muslim nation.

Over the years, the growing insurgent activities in Xinjiang region have sort of overshadowed the Tibetan insurgency struggle, which more or less has been tamed down by the Chinese authorities. One of the reasons for this unabating violence is considered to be Xinjiang's proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are considered to be hotbeds of Islamic terrorism.     

Last year, China announced that it is joining a quadrilateral anti-terror alliance along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan to quell the terrorism problem in Xinjiang and other regions. One of the terror groups that is continuously under Chinese security agency's radar is the East Turkestan independence movement ((ETIM)

"(ETIM) is the most prominent challenge to China's social stability, economic development and national security," Cheng Guoping, State Commissioner for counterterrorism and security, was quoted saying by the China Daily newspaper.  

TagsXinjiang, Xinjiang Insurgency, China Muslim Insurgency, China Muslim