Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited China's Xinjiang region, where his government is widely accused of oppressing predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.
It is his first visit to the region since 2014, when three people were killed in an attack before the start of a mass detention campaign against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Mr Xi showed no signs of backing down from his policies, which have come under harsh criticism from the US and many European countries.
He stressed the full and faithful implementation of his ruling Communist Party's approach in the region, highlighting social stability and lasting security as its overarching goals, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.
While no exact figure has been released, analysts say hundreds of thousands and likely a million or more people have been detained in the camps over time.
An Associated Press investigation in May found nearly one in 25 people in a single county in Xinjiang had been jailed on terrorism-related charges — the highest known imprisonment rate in the world.
Critics have described the crackdown, which placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps, as cultural genocide.
The US and others have imposed visa bans on some officials for their part in extralegal detentions, separation of families and incarceration of people for studying abroad or having foreign contacts.
Mr Xi, on what was described as an "inspection tour" from Tuesday to Friday, said that enhanced efforts should be made to uphold the principle that Islam in China must be Chinese in orientation, Xinhua said.
While the needs of religious believers should be ensured, they should be united closely with the Communist Party and the government, the official news agency quoted him as saying.
He called for educating and guiding people of all ethnic groups to strengthen their identification with the Chinese nation, culture and Communist Party.
The Chinese leader called Xinjiang a "core area and a hub" in China's program of building ports, railways and power stations, connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe.
The US has blocked some imports of cotton and other products from the region over reports of forced labour.
Mr Xi met with leaders of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a supra-governmental body that operates its own courts, schools and health services under a military system imposed on the region after the Communist Party took power in China in 1949.
Xinjiang borders Russia, Afghanistan and volatile Central Asia, which China has sought to draw within its orbit through economic incentives and security alliances.
ABC/wires
