Ilham Tohti

FILE – In this Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 photo, economist Ilham Tohti, from China’s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region speaks to students at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, China. His weekly lectures are a kind of high-wire act and he has been put under house arrest dozens of times over the past decade for criticizing how China runs his homeland and treats his people. Yet Tohti is not a separatist or even a political dissident. He’s a Communist Party member and a teacher at a top Chinese university who sees himself as a bridge between Hans and Uighurs. That the government has so far refused to endorse his middle road and work with him shows how difficult it is to resolve differences between the party and its restive Uighurs and Tibetans. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel) ** zu unserem KORR **