muslims. with a population of 80,000, the largest ethnic minority in lanzhou are called hui. roughout china today, there are 55 official ethnic minorities. of these, ten are muslim. the largest of these are hui. ( man delivering sermon ) narrator: although the hui have their own autonomous region in ningxia, other autonomous regions like xizang, or tibet, speak distinct languages. many in xinjiang, like the uighurs, speak turkic languages. many of these muslims feel oppressed by china for cultural and economic reasons. some seek a breakaway state of east turkistan. some have used violence, and the chinese government tries to crush their movement. hui are loyal chinese and are found throughout china. they sak the dominantanguages of thelaces where they live. now we getnto the issue of race and ethnicity. many people, uh, believe that, uh, these are... this is a group of people that is really of han chinese race but islamic religion. the hui themselves don't see it that way. they see themselves as the descendants of the earliest muslims in china, who were arabs, persians, turks,