After those riots that shook in particular Ürumqi in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, it looks like the Web as-is is finally coming back… of course with the blocks still in place. It’s going to be unlikely that Facebook and Twitter will be made available there again (for quite a while). The Asian Correspondent reports that the Web is now finally “fully” back.

Here’s a bit of politspeak to go along…

“For the stability, economic development and the needs of people from all ethnic backgrounds of the autonomous region, the Communist Party and the government of Xinjiang decided to fully resume Internet services beginning May 14,” the news office of the Xinjiang government said in a statement posted on a government website.

Behind the politspeak was more than the goal of “preserving social stability”. This came at a big price:

The severing of Internet connections in Xinjiang was more than just an inconvenience. Businesses who trade throughout Central Asia were forced to use faxes or send staff into neighboring provinces to access e-mail, while scientists found themselves shut off from research partners elsewhere. Many ordinary people relied on friends and family elsewhere in China to download their e-mails and pass the information on to them.

While Facebook and Twitter remains blocked nationwide, some sites slip out of the wall’s cracks, so to speak. Flickr, for example, is blocked in parts of Beijing but is fully OK in Shanghai, where your tech blogger’s based for about the next five days.

By the way, there was acknowledgement that Facebook, amongst others, remain “harmonized” — Xinjiang included:

At the China International Electronic Commerce Center in the regional capital Urumqi, a woman who refused to give her name, confirmed Friday that YouTube and Facebook were blocked in Xinjiang.

This ain’t good…