Four senior Uighur officials, writing in a front-page article in the official Xinjiang Daily newspaper on April 27, 2017, said young members of China's Uighur Muslim minority should "love the motherland" and learn Mandarin." They  asked young people to reflect on why Uighurs are labeled "terrorists" adding "A small group of devils create violence and terror in order to split the motherland and destroy ethnic unity. Because of this, we regularly face round-upon-round of safety checks, sometimes we finding it hard to stay in hotels or to rent housing." The article said “Young Uighurs should reflect on how the party had created a "harmonious, prosperous, happy and safe" life for minorities in Xinjiang, they said, adding that a failure to grasp the nation's common language of Mandarin was a "disgrace."  "Siblings, the great motherland has granted us a blessed, heavenly life, how can we follow those devils to abandon our motherland?" Officials have also launched a propaganda campaign, asking people to "warmly love the party, motherland, and the big family of the Chinese people" and "oppose splittism, extremism and violence." 

(Comment: While such campaigns are common, but in the current effort, an unusually large number of Uighur officials are reported to have come forward to ask fellow Uighurs to do more to support counterterrorism and to weed out "two-faced" people. Party Secretary Chen Quanguo has also beefed up already expansive security, increasing identification checks and expanding a network of police posts.)