AP Photo

Suddenly, the world’s attention is on Xinjiang in remote western China. This is a welcome development, as it will help to mobilize the kind of change that needs to take place, though it is unfortunate that ethnic strife has had to exact such a terrible cost to life and limb for the region to garner outside interest.

Those who would bear witness to the situation in Xinjiang have long faced barriers to access. I myself have been unable to get a China visa for six years. My offense was to write a chapter on the economy of Xinjiang for an academic volume on this “autonomous region.”