Photo Essay: Who Are the Uighurs?

Under Bejing's gaze: The Chinese government has actively promoted the migration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang, and since the 1950s, the region's Han community has grown from 5 to 40 percent of the region's total population. Although recent years have seen enormous economic growth in the region, local Uighurs have become increasingly resentful of control from Beijing. After a Uighur uprising in 1990, the Communist Party took steps to accelerate the integration of Xinjiang into China by stepping up migration and increasing the security presence and control over religion in the region. Above, a Han woman and a group of Uighur men stand in front of a statue of Chairman Mao in a park in Kashgar on June 14, 2008.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images