Although terrorist activities in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have been active in recent years due to influences from other parts of the world, the number of violent terrorist attacks in the region is decreasing, a senior official said on Thursday.
Forty-five people were sentenced in Xinjiang for trying to go abroad illegally to participate in jihad or for helping those who attempted to do so.
Uygur stowaways repatriated from Thailand to China claim they were tricked into becoming jihadis by human smugglers and overseas terrorist groups.
Here are stories of people who were duped to illegally leave China and join international terror cells. Now they have been extradited to China and gave first-person accounts on how the terror cells work.
"The living conditions there were even worse than in the average village in Xinjiang. We went to markets where everyone was armed, and I didn't feel safe at all. Sometimes people even started fighting among themselves at the market."
Memetili, who is now under custody in a detention center in Urumqi. He had wanted to join what he was told was jihad – the Holy War.
Ekber is another man who received militant training overseas. He was arrested on his return from Syria. He told how he had been trained by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
Two farmers in southern Xinjiang have never met, but have had very common experiences. Both men previously traveled illegally out of China to find the so-called "heavenly world", before being arrested and repatriated to their hometowns.
They have tried to migrate illegally in pursuit of a "heavenly life" or "jihad." Some have even planned terrorist attacks in China.
"Our mother country is the best. 'Paradise' is the place where we were born and grew up".
"Many children got sick but no one tried to take care of them so they returned. There was some feces on my son's pants, his clothes got dirty and obviously suffered a lack of nutrition."
"We were far from home, worrying about being smuggled and killed. We only had fruit rather than real food to keep ourselves alive. People who controlled us didn't care a bit about our lives."
