China’s Xi makes first Xinjiang visit

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping made a public visit to Xinjiang, state media reported on Friday. State news agency Xinhua said Xi hailed the strides made during an inspection tour of the far-western region -- his first since 2014, when three people were killed in an attack that presaged the start of the mass detention campaign three years later.

He also reportedly praised the work of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a sprawling paramilitary organisation sanctioned by the United States for alleged human rights abuses.

The group had made "great progress" in reform and development, Xinhua reported Xi as saying during a Wednesday trip to the city of Shihezi in the region’s north. State media footage showed Xi speaking to students and local officials, taking in a song and dance performance, and receiving rapturous applause from residents in traditional clothing.

The Chinese leader’s sojourn to Xinjiang comes after a similarly rare visit earlier this month to another formerly restive territory, Hong Kong, where authorities have come down hard on the city’s once-thriving pro-democracy movement.