China's Xi Jinping makes rare visit to once restive Xinjiang

President shown surrounded by smiling and clapping Uyghur residents on first visit in eight years

China's president, Xi Jinping, has paid his first visit to Xinjiang in eight years, as western nations continue to accuse Beijing of genocide against the region's mostly Muslim Uyghur population.

State media reported on Friday that the visit from Tuesday to Thursday including stops at a university and a trade zone in the regional capital, Urumqi. A photo from the official Xinhua news agency showed a maskless Xi surrounded by smiling and clapping residents, many of them apparently Uyghurs wearing traditional costumes and Muslim prayer caps.