“Look at us, we all make a living on small trading, selling some stuff or other on the roadside,” says Abulaiti, a young Uighur man who lives in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province. “Many young people do nothing at all. Regular jobs are hard to come by.”

Abulaiti, who asks to be identified by his first name only, lives in Balikun, a residential compound behind the Great Bazaar in Urumqi. The dirty alleys and blackened concrete housing blocks of Balikun are a far cry from the new residential compounds springing up across the city, with apartments mostly only Han Chinese residents can afford.