Tea house and evening market, Kashgar in Xinjiang, from Josh at Far West China. more ›

Uyghur journalist Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "endangering state security" by conducting an interview with a Hong Kong paper shortly after the Urumqi riots. While mainstream media has focused on the criticism China has gotten for this harsh sentence, Far West China examines why. It's a warning from the Chinese government: Talk to media, even a little big, get sent to jail. And it's working, though with what consequences? more ›

It's been one year now since Xinjiang suddenly erupted in riots, and the government is taking no chances. Josh of Far West China looks at all that's happening in his neck of the woods: apparently, they've been busy installing roughly 40,000 hi-def surveillance cameras, putting cameras into taxis and making sure foreign reporters don't go anywhere alone. more ›

You might have heard that the "restrictions" on media and communications in Xinjiang are slowly but surely being "restored." Well, it seems like that's a bit too optimistic: First, the ban on SMS services was lifted, but according to Far West China, you can only send twenty messages a day. In addition, you can also make international calls as of today, and access to the internet is slowly being unblocked: as of now, there's a grand total of four websites you can access, and it seems even those are fairly censored. more ›

It's been nearly half a year since the riots in Xinjiang happened. For us outside of the "new frontier," getting news about the state of affairs is difficult, if possible at all: the internet has been thoroughly tightened since the riots, blocking just about everything not hosted inside the province. Very little information flows in or out, so most of our updates have been from Far West China, a great blog on the trials of living in Xinjiang, especially in the wake of this year's tumult. more ›

Since nobody's had the brilliant idea to set up a Xinjiangist yet, we rely on various blogs getting blocked on and off to learn what's going on about the region. If you already have Far West China and Opposite End of China (possibly taken down?) already on your blogroll, consider adding this one too: The New Dominion. more ›