• Charlie Campbell / Beijing @charliecamp6ell

Time.com 4:40 AM ET

STR/AFP/Getty Images An antiterrorism force including public-security police and the armed police attend an antiterrorism joint exercise in Hami, northwest China’s Xinjiang region, on July 2, 2013

Insecurity in China’s far Western province of Xinjiang throws up obstacles for Xi’s signature “One Belt, One Road” initiative

On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a mosque in China’s western Ningxia province. The leader of the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) praised the local Muslim community’s rich cultural contribution and efforts alleviating poverty. “Religions in our country, the endemic ones and those from abroad, have become deeply embedded in the Chinese civilization, whose history covers more than 5,000 years,” Xi said in Ningxia’s capital Yinchuan, reports the state-backed China Daily newspaper.

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