From this security angle, what impact the new silk road is likely to have on the uighur minority in xinjiang is a warranted concern. Owing to the religious and ethnic and commonalities central asians have with the uighur muslim population, weaving together xinjiang and the region could conceivably complicate china's economic relations with the region and constrain the actions beijing takes to contain what it understands to be foreign-inspired islamic "terrorism." Under the tenure of former energy and security czar zhou yongkang - whose star has since fallen quite dramatically - violence in the region had been escalating. The increased exercise of hard power is highly visible, not least because the repression of some of the most moderate activists has fuelled local agitation, excited the international media and the "foreign jihadists" that so worry the chinese goverment.