The number of people arrested and imprisoned in China's Xinjiang skyrocketed in 2017, according to official data, as
Beijing tightens its grip on the troubled region with surveillance and mass detentions.
One in five arrests made in
China in 2017 took place in Xinjiang, although the region is home to just two percent of the country's population, data from the local prosecutor's office showed.
Beijing has come under international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps, according to human rights groups.