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THE "OTHER" CHINESE

Xinjiang is the most remote region of China and if you like to associate it with the People's Republic you can, but once you get there it is easy to realize the more central asian look of the area. Its main urban environment named Urumqi is home to about 5 million inhabitants, most of them Uighurs, the rest chinese migrants taking advantage of the government's working migrant policies. The regime's main interest in this area is the oil on which it floats. Furthermore, according to some agreements with Russia and Khazakistan, this region hosts a long portion of a gas pipe vitally important for western countries. Not secondary, it is to keep under control and localize eventual independence uproars from locals always striving for separatism.