PSSST, ALL OF UIGHURSTAN IS FOREIGN:

China Blames Foreign-Trained Separatists for Attacks in Xinjiang (MICHAEL WINES, 8/01/11, NY Times)

Authorities in China's troubled Xinjiang region charged Monday that the leader of the first of two lethal assaults over the weekend had trained in Pakistan, an unusually specific accusation that could hint at growing Chinese impatience with Pakistan's inability to control radical groups operating within its borders.

The accusation, made by local authorities in the historic city of Kashgar, came as the head of Pakistan's national spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, was completing a visit to Beijing at which rising violence by predominantly Muslic, ethnic Uighur separatists in Xinjiang was almost certain to have been discussed. [...]

[T]he Chinese, who view Uighur separatist sentiment as a dire threat, have become increasingly concerned about Pakistan as a haven for radicals. A Pakistani terrorism expert, Muhammad Amir Rana, said last month that Pakistani intelligence officials had traveled to Beijing in early June to reassure the Chinese of their commitment to weed out Uighur separatists from their territory.

Whether Kashgar officials cleared their statement with the central government in Beijing is not known. Local and regional governments frequently act without central government approval on issues both large and small. The attacks came less than two weeks after Uighur assailants invaded a police station in Hotan, a Xinjiang desert town, killing four civilians and reportedly displaying separatist banners before being gunned down. Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, was the scene of Uighur rioting in July 2009 that killed nearly 200 people, many of them members of China's majority ethnic group, the Han, a focus of Uighur resentment.

Chinese officials frequently attribute ethnic strife in Xinjiang to foreign militants rather than to domestic discontent.

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