“Our lives are getting better and better each year,” said one of the farmers, whose voice was dubbed into Mandarin Chinese because he spoke the Turkic language of the Uighurs. “We won’t let the three evils ruin everything.” But on the streets of Hotan, it was difficult to find people who would say the same things. Most Uighurs declined to discuss the issue because they feared they might be overheard by informants or plainclothes police who were following an Associated Press reporter.

One vendor, who identified himself as Habib, said he disliked the Han Chinese. “Was the July 5 incident a bad thing? I don’t know,” he said with a grin and a laugh.

A college student, who identified herself as Gulinisa, said she was tuning out the propaganda. “I just can’t stand to watch the TV anymore,” she said. “It makes me so mad.” Many Uighurs believe the real underlying grievances - discrimination and restrictions on their religion - were being ignored and that pent-up anger will explode again. They also complain the propaganda campaign delegitimized their concerns.

The government has long used a two-pronged approach to Xinjiang: push for rapid economic development while crushing any signs of dissent. It has been mostly successful on both fronts. The region’s economy has grown by an average annual rate of 10.3 percent in the past 30 years, the government said. Large-scale uprisings have been relatively few in the past decade or so.

Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic policy at Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said he agreed with the government’s view that the recent rioting was an act of terrorism, partly whipped up by outside forces. But he also believed that internal cultural, religious and political factors played a role.

... contd.