Formal charge against Ilham Tohti comes a day after violence in southern Xinjiang . Ilham Tohti , an economics professor at Beijing 's Minzu University , was detained by police in January and taken to his native Xinjiang , China 's restive northwestern region where a spate of recent violent incidents have been blamed by the government on Uyghur separatists seeking to establish an independent state . The government has blamed the unrest on terrorists and separatists from neighboring Pakistan who have been trying to destabilize China. Uyghur-Han relations are a focus of Tohti 's research .
Formal charge against Ilham Tohti comes a day after violence in southern Xinjiang . The government has blamed the unrest on terrorists and separatists from neighboring Pakistan who have been trying to destabilize China. Uyghur-Han relations are a focus of Tohti 's research .