Foreign Correspondent: Sept 30

Stephen McDonell heads into Xinjiang Province in China as Beijing cracks down on a Muslim community -but he and his Foreign Correspondent cameraman attract attention of Chinese security themselves.

As Australia lifts its terrorism preparedness to high and despatches planes and personnel to join the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, China is intensifying its crackdown on a resident Muslim community in the remote northwest of the country in what it claims is its own war on terror.

The Uighurs have inhabited the sprawling and spectacular Xinjiang province for centuries, but cells of violent separatists have brought a crackdown from Beijing that’s making life extremely difficult for the law-abiding majority. Amid claims the Communist Government is trying to erase the Uighur heritage and as authorities impose new barriers to reporting in China, Stephen McDonell heads into Silk Road territory and one of China’s most sensitive issues… which explains the shadowy, ever-growing team sent to follow him.

It’s a striking expanse of rolling sand dunes and oases, peppered with stunning old ruins of the Silk Road trade and marked by busy and outwardly prosperous cities and towns.

Xinjiang Province in north-west China is home to the Uighurs, Turkish-speaking Sunni Muslims who, over the years, have been ruled by local warlords, Chinese emperors and Mongolian raiders and, fleetingly, themselves.

But there are elements within the community who yearn for an independent homeland and within that group there are those who are prepared to do whatever it takes to shake off Chinese rule. That means acts of deadly terror.

And with the Xinjiang province nestling up against Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are concerns that fanatical Uighurs are forging alliances with external extremists and potentially becoming an intractable force.

But is China’s central government using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

The crackdown on the broader Uighur community has become intense and unrelenting.

Most have been intimidated by authorities into compliance and silence. In schools, teaching in Uighur language has been discouraged and is disappearing. Enormous numbers of Han Chinese have been pressed into the province to water down the Uighurs’ presence and influence. In some towns, payments are being offered for inter-marriage.

This is one of China’s most sensitive issues and as President Xi Jinping’s government imposes growing restrictions on the way the media operates, it’s an incredibly difficult story to cover.

Nevertheless Correspondent Stephen McDonell sets out to do just that for Foreign Correspondent, heading into one of the most stifled and controlled parts of China in search of perspective on how Beijing’s crackdown is playing out and what it means for the Uighurs.

It’s not long before he and cameraman Wayne McAllister draw the attention of security forces; scrutiny that only grows over the course of their dogged pursuit of this important story.

What emerges is a clear picture of a state desperate to extinguish a violent, separatist element even if that means extinguishing an otherwise vibrant and cohesive culture in the process.

Tuesday, 30 September at 8pm on ABC.