Police in Guangdong are on top security alert against possible terrorist attacks, two independent sources close to the police say.

The increase in security comes amid ethnic tensions in Xinjiang , which have spilled over into violent attacks in other parts of the country in the past few years, and a warning from a prominent counterterrorism expert that the growing number of Uygurs moving to the Middle East for training by terrorist groups poses a “very significant threat” to China.

Exiled Uygurs and human rights groups have complained of repressive government policies on culture and religion in Xinjiang, as well as economic marginalisation by the country’s dominant Han ethnicity.

… About 600 Uygurs from Xinjiang had moved to Syria and Iraq, according to Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University.