REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Saturday that China faces increasing threats to national security and warned of the dangers of terrorism in a speech indicating that Beijing could impose tougher controls on its ethnic minorities.

"We have to be clearly aware that in the new situation, our country is facing increasing threats and challenges to our national security and increasing threats to our social stability," Xi said.

Xi told a study session of the party's decision-making Politburo "to resolutely stamp out the brazenness of the terrorists," the state-run Xinhua news agency said. Xi's comments come at a sensitive time for China, as authorities battle unrest in the Tibetan regions and in Xinjiang, home to Muslim Uighurs.

Unrest in Xinjiang has led to the deaths of more than 100 people in the past year, prompting a tougher stance against the Muslim Uighur minority. The government blames the violence in Xinjiang on Islamist militants and separatists who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan in the far western region.

More than 120 Tibetans set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest Beijing's rule, with many calling for the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Beijing said the self-immolators were "terrorists". Most have died from their injuries.

Human rights groups have said that Beijing tramples on the religious and cultural rights of Tibetans and Uighurs and enforces its rule with brutality. China said ethnic minorities enjoyed broad freedoms.

Xi's administration has intensified a crackdown on dissent. Beijing sparked an outcry from Western nations in January when police detained Ilham Tohti, a professor who has championed the rights of Uighurs.

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