<p>Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the northwestern Xinjiang region this week amid concerns over China's detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic native minorities.</p>.<p>Xi called Xinjiang a “core area and a hub” in China's programme of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, the official <em>Xinhua </em>news agency reported Thursday.</p>.<p>Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang's native Uygur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of deadly separatist violence.</p>.<p>Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as cultural genocide. The US and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans for their part in extra-legal detentions, separation of families and incarcerating people for studying abroad or having foreign contacts.</p>.<p>Xi met with leaders of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a supra-governmental body that operates its own courts, schools and health system under the military system imposed on the region after the Communist Party's rise to power in 1949.</p>.<p>Xi “learned about the history of the XPCC in cultivating and guarding the frontier areas," <em>Xinhua </em>reported.</p>.<p>Xinjiang borders Russia, Afghanistan and volatile Central Asia, which China has sought to draw within its orbit through economic incentives and security alliances.</p>
<p>Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the northwestern Xinjiang region this week amid concerns over China's detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic native minorities.</p>.<p>Xi called Xinjiang a “core area and a hub” in China's programme of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, the official <em>Xinhua </em>news agency reported Thursday.</p>.<p>Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang's native Uygur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of deadly separatist violence.</p>.<p>Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as cultural genocide. The US and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans for their part in extra-legal detentions, separation of families and incarcerating people for studying abroad or having foreign contacts.</p>.<p>Xi met with leaders of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a supra-governmental body that operates its own courts, schools and health system under the military system imposed on the region after the Communist Party's rise to power in 1949.</p>.<p>Xi “learned about the history of the XPCC in cultivating and guarding the frontier areas," <em>Xinhua </em>reported.</p>.<p>Xinjiang borders Russia, Afghanistan and volatile Central Asia, which China has sought to draw within its orbit through economic incentives and security alliances.</p>