Well, as PRC security forces in Xinjiang seem caught between the Uighur minority-in-their-own-land and the imported Han majority as the two sides work hard at beating and killing each other, it appears Beijing has done what they do and cracked down.

In this case, they're cracking down on all the social networking sites and tools we've all become so accustomed to, including, it appears to us here in Shanghai, Facebook, which would be a first. In addition, as reported elsewhere, other mobile and Web networks coming out of Xinjiang have been disrupted.

Anyway, Xinjiang did what Tibet couldn't, what the Olympics couldn't... and caused the apparatchicks behind the GFW to take Facebook away. We realiize, of course, that the inconvenience of expats losing access to their party pics pales in comparison to the loss of life out west.

We'll keep you posted, though unless you're on our RSS or check the site itself, you won't know from us... because we can't tweet, we can't mail our Facebook group, and we're as the GFW admins seem to want us: Cut off and talking to ourselves.

We should add that from a tourism and travel perspective, this is all rather bad PR for the PRC. And don't expect to visit Xinjiang any time soon after the government's attempt to cart in a bunch of journalists to Urumqi backfired when protesting Uighurs (largely women) raised a ruckus.

For an update on the censorship situation from Ryan of Lost Laowai, check out Block Block Block, Blockity Block.

Photo from The New York Times. Go here for a slide show of powerful images of the scene on the ground.