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In the wake of violent rioting in the western city of Urumqi back in July, Chinese authorities took a radical step: cutting off all Internet, text-messaging and international telephone services in Xinjiang, a restive province home to 21 million people.

Nearly four months later – and despite official assertions that calm has returned to Xinjiang following the ethnic violence that left almost 200 people dead – the cut-off remains in place, effectively severing the predominantly Uyghur Muslim region from communicating with the rest of the planet.

While access to several dozen websites – most of them run by the Chinese government – has been restored, most Xinjiang residents haven't been able to check their e-mail or call outside the country since before the July 5 riots.

“We must not be duped by the illusion of normality. Most Uyghurs still cannot go online, send SMS messages or even make phone calls,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a recently released report.

“The official reason given for this blackout, that ‘terrorists used the Internet and SMS messaging,' is unacceptable. Do the Pakistani or Afghan authorities suspend the Internet because terrorists sent e-mail messages? No. The Chinese government seems more interested in preventing Xinjiang's inhabitants from circulating information about the real situation in the province, especially about the crackdown after the July riots.”

For Xinjiang residents, the daily aggravations have gone on so long that they've become almost normal. Residents nonchalantly tell stories of lost business opportunities and losing contact with friends and relatives outside Xinjiang.

“I request help from friends outside of Xinjiang to check my e-mail inbox … then I tell my friends which e-mails to delete, and who to notify that they should suspend trying to contact me by e-mail. I've almost forgotten the password of my e-mail account because it's been so long since I've logged in,” said Ms. Zhang, a 25-year-old civil servant living in Urumqi who gave only her family name.

Pulati, a 28-year-old Uyghur folk singer who also gave only one name, said the cut-off has made it hard to keep up with what other musicians are doing and made it difficult for him to do his banking. “I can't search or download music any more,” he said in a telephone interview. “I used to spend an hour or so a day online in the past. I also have friends who are in business and rely on the Internet quite a bit, so they complain a lot more than me.”

Authorities in Beijing blame the July 5 rioting – which saw Uyghur mobs rampage through Urumqi attacking police and Han Chinese civilians – on Uyghur exile groups based in the United States and Europe, who allegedly used the Internet and mobile-phone text messages to organize the violence.

Hundreds of people, most of them Uyghur, were arrested in the wake of the July rioting and human-rights groups say hundreds more have disappeared. Tensions spiked again in September amid a wave of mysterious syringe attacks that provoked fresh rioting that left five people dead.

Animosity was simmering in the region long before the recent violence. The indigenous Uyghur population has grown increasingly resentful of a government-sponsored influx of Han Chinese into the province, charging that the new arrivals get preferential treatment from the predominantly Han authorities when it comes to job opportunities.

While Xinjiang was once almost entirely inhabited by Uyghurs, an ethnically Turkic people with historic links to Central Asia, Han Chinese now make up just over 40 per cent of the population, and the majority in Urumqi, the capital. Exile groups such as the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress seek to restore the brief independence the region had in the 1940s under the name East Turkestan before the arrival of Communist forces.

Though there have been no reports of violence in recent weeks, thousands of extra police and military are still deployed on the streets of Urumqi and other cities, giving them an almost occupied feel.

Many in Urumqi say they've become used to that, and see the extra security measures as necessary to keep the peace. But Xinjiang residents of all ethnicities say they're frustrated there has been no announcement about when normal communications will be restored.

“There has been absolutely no information from the government about anything. The only news we get about [when the] Internet [will be reconnected] is hearsay. I went to lunch with a city government official a few weeks ago and after a few probing questions realized he had absolutely no clue either,” said Josh Summers, a 26-year-old American blogger and English teacher living in Xinjiang.

Even those who say they understand the government's reasons for restricting Internet and telephone services, admit that the cut-off – combined with the ongoing tensions and occasional spasms of violence – has helped make Xinjiang increasingly unlivable.

“Basically, Urumqi is safe now, but I'm still not going out after work,” said Ms. Zhang, who is Han Chinese. She added that many Han residents are thinking about leaving the region for good.

“Recently there is more concentrated advertising from real-estate companies in eastern China. They're promoting houses in coastal cities like Qingdao and Yantai. … During the October holidays, many people travelled there to take a look at new homes.”