The government has blamed much of the unrest on separatist Islamist militants, although rights groups and exiles say anger at tightening Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Muslim Uighurs is more to blame.
Hundreds have been killed in Xinjiang in the past two years, most in violence between the Muslim Uighur people, who call the region home, and the ethnic majority Han Chinese.
The large-scale parade in Hotan, a hotspot of ethnic tension in Xinjiang`s southern Muslim Uighur heartland, involved thousands of armed police and paramilitary officers and was designed to "show strength and intimidate", according to a front-page report in the official Xinjiang Daily on Friday.
On Tuesday, three knife-wielding attackers killed five people and injured another five in Pishan County, in Hotan prefecture.
After a period of relative calm, there has been an uptick in violence in recent weeks, particularly in the region`s south.
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