article_snippet: Beijing (CNN)China has linked violence in CNN)China Xinjiang to ISIS and says Chinese nationals have fought for the extremist group.
article_snippet: The Communist Party chief of Xinjiang -- its far-western Muslim region of Xinjiang's top official -- told reporters Tuesday to view mounting violence there in the context of a global jihadist movement, especially with the rise of ISIS -- also known as the Islamic State or IS.
article_snippet: Some extremists in Xinjiang have participated in the IS and I think this further proves that intentional extremist forces cannot be ignored," said Zhang Chunxian on the sidelines of the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament.
article_snippet: A spate of violent attacks in Xinjiang -- a resource-rich area long inhabited by the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs -- has killed hundreds of people in the past two years.
article_snippet: Xinjiang has blamed the incidents on Muslim Uyghur separatists seeking to establish an independent state.
article_snippet: China's state media had earlier reported on Muslim Uyghur militants trying to flee China and join ISIS training camps in preparation for attacks back home.
article_snippet: Over the past decades, the arrival in Xinjiang of waves of Han Chinese, China's predominant ethnic group, has fueled ethnic tensions.
article_snippet: Other critics have attributed the rise of violence in Xinjiang to Beijing's repressive reign there -- a claim Xinjiang vehemently denies.
highlights_snippet: China has linked violence in China far-western Muslim region of Xinjiang to ISIS .
  
highlights_snippet: Top Xinjiang official says Chinese nationals have fought for the extremist group .
  