Xinjiang (
Uyghur: شىنجاڭ,
Shinjang; ;
Postal map spelling:
Sinkiang) is an
autonomous region (
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) of the
People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area which takes up about one sixth of the country's territory. Xinjiang borders the
Tibet Autonomous Region to the south and
Qinghai and
Gansu provinces to the southeast,
Mongolia to the east,
Russia to the north, and
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, and the
Pakistan- and
India-controlled parts of
Kashmir to the west. It administers most of
Aksai Chin, a region claimed by
India as part of
Jammu and Kashmir.
"Xinjiang" or "Ice Jecen" in
Manchu, literally means "New Frontier", a name given during the
Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. It is home to a number of
Turkic ethnic groups, the largest of which are the
Uyghurs. The region is often referred to as
Chinese Turkestan or
East Turkestan.
History
Early history
According to JP Mallory, the
Chinese describe the existence of "white people with long hair" or the
Bai people in the
Shan Hai Jing, who lived beyond their northwestern border.
The very well preserved
Tarim mummies with
Caucasoid features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the
Ürümqi Museum and dated to the
3rd century BCE, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. Various nomadic tribes, such as the
Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of
Indo-European speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia (possibly as far as
Gansu) at that time. The
Ordos culture situated at northern China east of the Yuezhi, are another example.
Nomadic cultures such as the
Yuezhi are documented in the area of Xinjiang from the 1st millennium BCE. The first known reference to the Yuezhi was made in
645 BC by the Chinese
Guan Zhong in his
Guanzi 管子(Guanzi Essays: 73: 78: 80: 81) . He described the Yuzhi 禺氏, or Niuzhi 牛氏, as a people from the north-west who supplied
jade to the Chinese from the nearby mountains of Yuzhi 禺氏 at
Gansu. The supply of jade from the Tarim Basin from ancient times is indeed well documented archaeologically: "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the
Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from
Khotan in modern
Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BCE the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." (Liu (2001), pp. 267-268).
The nomadic tribes of the Yuezhi are also documented in detail in Chinese historical accounts, in particular the 2nd-
1st century BCE "Records of the Great Historian", or
Shiji, by
Sima Qian. According to these accounts:
» "The Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the
Qilian or Heavenly Mountains (
Tian Shan) and
Dunhuang, but after they were defeated by the
Xiongnu they moved far away to the west, beyond
Dayuan, where they attacked and conquered the people of
Daxia and set up the court of their king on the northern bank of the Gui [=
Oxus] River. A small number of their people who were unable to make the journey west sought refuge among the
Qiang barbarians in the Southern Mountains, where they're known as the Lesser Yuezhi.",
According to Han accounts, the Yuezhi "were flourishing" during the time of the first great Chinese
Qin emperor, but were regularly in conflict with the neighbouring tribe of the
Xiongnu to the northeast.
Struggle between Xiongnu and Han China
Traversed by the
Silk Road,
Western Regions or
Xinjiang is the
Chinese name for the
Tarim and
Dzungaria regions of what is now northwest China. At the beginning of the
Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), the region was subservient to the
Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people based in modern Mongolia. In the 2nd century BC, Han China sent
Zhang Qian as an envoy to the states in the region, beginning several decades of struggle between the Xiongnu and Han China over dominance of the region, eventually ending in Chinese success. In 60 BC Han China established the
Protectorate of the Western Regions (西域都護府) at Wulei (烏壘; near modern
Luntai) to oversee the entire region as far west as the
Pamir.
During the usurpation of
Wang Mang in China, the dependent states of the protectorate rebelled and returned to Xiongnu domination in 13. Over the next century, Han China conducted several expeditions into the region, re-establishing the protectorate from 74-76, 91-107, and from 123 onward. After the fall of the
Han Dynasty (AD 220), the protectorate continued to be maintained by
Cao Wei (until 265) and the
Western Jin Dynasty (from 265 onwards).
A summary of Classical sources on the
Seres (Greek and Romain name of China) (essentially
Pliny and
Ptolemy) gives the following account:
» " The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world, and extending west nearly to Imaus and the confines of Bactria. The people are civilised men, of mild, just, and frugal temper, eschewing collisions with their neighbours, and even shy of close intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable quality." (
Henry Yule, "Cathey and the way thither")
A succession of peoples
The Western Jin Dynasty succumbed to successive waves of invasions by nomads from the north at the beginning of the
4th century. The short-lived non-Han Chinese kingdoms that ruled northwestern China one after the other, including
Former Liang,
Former Qin,
Later Liang, and
Western Liáng, all attempted to maintain the protectorate, with varying extents and degrees of success. After the final reunification of northern China under the
Northern Wei empire, its protectorate controlled what is now the southeastern third of Xinjiang. Local states such as
Shule,
Yutian,
Guizi and
Qiemo controlled the western half, while the central region around
Turpan was controlled by
Gaochang, remnants of a state (
Northern Liang) that once ruled part of what is now
Gansu province in northwestern China.
Turk Empire
In the late
5th century the
Tuyuhun and the
Rouran began to assert power in southern and northern Xinjiang, respectively, and the Chinese protectorate was lost again. In the
6th century the
Turks began to emerge in the
Altay region, subservient to the Rouran. Within a century they'd defeated the Rouran and established a vast
Turk Empire, stretching over most of
Central Asia past both the
Aral Sea in the west and
Lake Baikal in the east. In
583 the Turks split into western and eastern halves, with Xinjiang coming under the western half. In
609, China under the
Sui Dynasty defeated the
Tuyuhun, gaining control of southeastern Xinjiang.
The Tang Dynasty and the Khanates
The
Tang Dynasty was established in
618, and would prove to be one of the most expansionist dynasties in Chinese history. Starting from the 620's and 630's, Tang China conducted a series of expeditions against the Turks, eventually forcing the surrender of the western Turks in
657. Xinjiang was placed under the
Anxi Protectorate (安西都護府; "Protectorate Pacifying the West"). The protectorate didn't outlast the decline of Tang China in the
8th century. During the devastating
Anshi Rebellion,
Tibet invaded Tang China on a wide front from Xinjiang to
Yunnan, sacking the Tang capital in
763, and taking control of southern Xinjiang by the end of the century. At the same time, the
Uyghur Khaganate took control of northern Xinjiang, as well as much of the rest of Central Asia, including Mongolia, where their empire originated.
Both Tibet and the Uyghur Khaganate declined in the mid-
9th century. The
Kara-Khanid Khanate, which arose from a confederation of Turkic tribes scattered after the destruction of the Uyghur empire, took control of western Xinjiang in the
10th century and the
11th century. Meanwhile, after the Uyghur khanate in Mongolia had been smashed by the Kirghiz, branches of the
Uyghurs established themselves in the area around today's Turfan and Urumchi in 840. This Uyghur state would remain in eastern Xinjiang until the 13th century, though it would be subject to various overlords during that time. Some scholars have argued, that the Kara-Khanids were likewise "Uyghurs," as some of the components in the Kara-Khanid federation were likewise from the ruling clans of the Uyghur empire. The Kara-Khanids converted to
Islam, whereas the Uyghur state in eastern Xinjiang remained Manicheaean, while tolerating
Buddhism and
Christianity.
In
1132, remnants of the
Khitan Empire from
Manchuria entered Xinjiang, fleeing the onslaught of the
Jurchens into north China. They established an exile regime, the
Kara-Khitan Khanate, which became overlord over both Kara-Khanid-held and Uyghur-held parts of the Tarim Basin for the next century.
Arrival of the Mongols
After
Genghis Khan had unified Mongolia and began his advance west, the Uyghur state in the Turfan-Urumchi area sensibly offered its allegiance to the Mongols in 1209, contributing taxes and troops to the Mongol imperial effort. In return, the Uyghur rulers retained control of their kingdom. By contrast,
Genghis Khan's
Mongol Empire conquered the
Kara-Khitan in
1218. Because the Kara-Khitan had persecuted Islam, the Mongols were met as liberators in the Kashgar area. After the break-up of the Mongol Empire into smaller khanates, Xinjiang, though nominally ruled by the
Chagatai Khanate, one of the
successor states of the empire, in fact was fought over by successor regimes based in Mongolia and in China. In the
15th century the Chagatai Khanate disintegrated into separate states in
Gulja,
Yarkand, and
Turpan.
In the
17th century, the
Dzungars (
Oirats,
Kalmyks) established an empire over much of the region.
Kalmyks controlled a vast area known as
Grand Tartary or the
Kalmyk Empire to Westerners, which stretched from the
Great Wall of China to the
Don River, and from the
Himalayas to
Siberia.
The Manchu Empire
The
Qing Empire, established by the
Manchus in China, gained control over eastern Xinjiang as a result of a long struggle with the Zunghars (Dzungars) that began in the seventeenth century. In
1755, the Manchu Empire attacked
Ghulja, and captured the Zunghar khan. Over the next two years, the Manchus and Mongol armies of the Qing destroyed the remnants of the Zunghar khanate, and attempted to divide the Xinjiang region into four sub-khanates under four chiefs. Similarly, the Qing made members of a clan of sufi shaykhs known as the Khojas, rulers in the western Tarim Basin, south of the Tianshan Mts. In
1758-
59, however, rebellions against this arrangement broke out both north and south of the
Tian Shan mountains. The Qing was thus forced, contrary to its initial intent, to establish a form of direct military rule over both Zungharia (northern Xinjiang) and the Tarim Basin (southern Xinjiang). The Manchus put the whole region under the rule of a
General of Ili, headquartered at the fort of
Huiyuan (the so-called "Manchu Kuldja", or Yili), 30 km west of
Ghulja (Yining).
By the mid-
19th century, the
Russian Empire was encroaching upon Qing China along its entire northern frontier. The Opium Wars and Taiping and other rebellion's in
China proper had severely restricted the dynasty's ability to maintain its garrisons in distant Xinjiang. In
1864 both Chinese Muslims (
Hui) and
Uyghurs rebelled in Xinjiang cities, following an on-going Chinese
Muslim Rebellion in
Gansu and
Shaanxi provinces further east. Qing control of the region was swept away. In 1865,
Yaqub Beg, a warlord from the neighbouring
Khanate of Kokand, entered Xinjiang via Kashgar, and conquered nearly all of Xinjiang over the next six years. In
1871, Russia took advantage of the chaotic situation and seized the rich
Ili River valley, including
Gulja. By then, Qing China held onto only a few strongholds, including
Tacheng.
Yaqub Beg's rule lasted until General
Zuo Zongtang (also known as General Tso) reconquered the region between
1875 and
1877 for Qing China. In
1881, Qing China recovered the
Gulja region through diplomatic negotiations (
Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)). In
1884, Qing China established Xinjiang ("new frontier") as a province, formally applying onto it the political system of China proper.
After the Qing Dynasty
In
1912 the
Qing Dynasty was replaced by the
Republic of China.
Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor of Xinjiang, fled. One of his subordinates
Yang Zengxin (杨增新), acceded to the Republic of China in March of the same year, and maintained control of Xinjiang until his death in
1928. Following insurgencies against Governor
Jin Shuren (金树仁) in the early
1930s, a rebellion in
Kashgar led to establishment of the short-lived
First East Turkistan Republic (1st ETA) in
1933. Xinjiang was eventually brought under the control of
Han Chinese Sheng Shicai (盛世才), who ruled Xinjiang for the next decade with close support from the
Soviet Union, many of whose ethnic and security policies Sheng instituted in Xinjiang. Sheng invited a group of
Chinese Communists to Xinjiang, including
Mao Zedong's brother
Mao Zemin, but in
1943, fearing a conspiracy, Sheng killed all communists, including Mao Zemin, in Xinjiang. A
Second East Turkistan Republic (2nd ETA, also known as the
Three Districts Revolution) existed from
1944-
1949 with
Soviet support in what is now
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in northern Xinjiang.
The Second East Turkistan Republic came to an end when the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered Xinjiang in
1949. According to the PRC interpretation, the 2nd ETA was Xinjiang's revolution, a positive part of the communist revolution in China; the 2nd ETA acceded to and welcomed the PLA when they entered Xinjiang, a process known as the
Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang. However independence advocates view the ETA as an effort to establish an independent state, and the subsequent PLA entry as an invasion. The autonomous region of the PRC was established on
October 1,
1955, replacing the province. The PRC's first
nuclear test was carried out at
Lop Nur, Xinjiang, on
October 16,
1964.
Continued tensions
There continues to be concern over tensions in the region, centering upon Uyghur
cultural aspirations to independence, and resentment towards what
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch describe as repression of non-
Han Chinese culture.
Conversely, many
Han Chinese perceive PRC policies of ethnic autonomy as discriminatory against them (see
autonomous entities of China). Independence advocates view Chinese rule in Xinjiang, and policies like the
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as
Chinese imperialism.
The tensions have occasionally resulted in major incidents and violent clashes during the PRC period. For example, in
1962 60,000 Uyghur and Kazak refugees fled northern Xinjiang into the
Soviet Union, escaping famine and political purges of the
Great Leap Forward era; in the 1980s there was a scattering of student demonstrations and riots against police action that took on an ethnic aspect; and the
Baren Township riot in April, 1990, an abortive uprising, resulted in more than 50 deaths.
A police round-up of suspected separatists during
Ramadan resulted in large demonstrations that turned violent in February 1997, and episode known as the
Ghulja / Yining Incident and led to in at least 9 deaths
(External Link
). The
Urumqi bus bombs of
February 25,
1997, perhaps a response to the crackdown that followed the Ghulja Incident, killed 9 and injured 68. Despite much talk of separatism and terrorism in Xinjiang, especially after the
9-11 attacks in the United States and the
US invasion of Afghanistan, the situation in Xinjiang was quiet from the late nineties through mid-2006, though inter-ethnic tensions no doubt remained.
On
January 5 2007 the Chinese Public Security Bureau raided a "terrorist training camp" in the mountains near the Pamir Plateau in southern Xinjiang. According to reports 18 "terrorists" were killed and another 17 captured in a gun battle between the East Turkestan Independence Movement and PRC forces. One Police Officer was killed and "over 1,500 hand grenades... were seized."
(External Link)
Historic names
Once part of
Western Regions, later,
East Turkestan.
Subdivisions
Xinjiang is divided into two
prefecture-level cities, seven
prefectures, and five autonomous prefectures. (Two of the seven prefectures are in turn part of Ili, an autonomous prefecture.) These are then divided into eleven districts, twenty county-level cities, sixty-two counties, and six autonomous counties. Four of the county-level cities don't belong to any prefecture, and are
de facto administered by the
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Geography and geology
Xinjiang is the largest
political subdivision of China - it accounts for more than one sixth of China's total territory and a quarter of its boundary length. It is divided into two basins by
Mount Tianshan.
Dzungarian Basin is in the north, and
Tarim Basin is in the south. Xinjiang's lowest point is the
Turfan Depression, 155 metres below sea level (lowest point in the
PRC as well). Its highest peak,
K2, is
8611 metres above sea level, on the border with
Kashmir.
Most of Xinjiang is young geologically, having been formed from the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate, forming the
Tian Shan,
Kunlun Shan, and
Pamir mountain ranges. Consequently, Xinjiang is a major
earthquake zone. Older geological formations occur principally in the far north where the
Junggar Block is geologically part of
Kazakhstan, and in the east which is part of the
North China Craton.
Xinjiang has within its borders the point of land remotest from the sea (Lat. 46 degrees 16.8 minutes N, Long. 86 degrees 40.2 minutes E) in the
Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert, 1,645 miles (2648 km) from the nearest coastline (straight-line distance).
The
Tian Shan mountain range marks the Xinjiang-Kyrgyzstan border at the
Torugart Pass (3752 m). The
Karakorum highway (KKH) links
Islamabad,
Pakistan with
Kashgar over the
Khunjerab Pass.
The
Eurasian pole of inaccessibility, the point on land farthest from any ocean, is located approximately 320 km (200 mi) from the city of
Urumqi, within the boundary of Xinjiang.
Rivers include:
Major Cities:
Urumqi
Turpan
Kashgar
Karamay
Yining
Shihezi
Qinggir
Economy
Xinjiang is known for its fruits and produce, including grapes, melons, pears, cotton, wheat, silk, walnuts and sheep. Xinjiang also has large deposits of minerals and oil.
Xinjiang's nominal GDP was approximately 187 billion RMB (about 23 billion USD) in 2003, and increased to 220 billion RMB (about 28 billion USD) in 2004, due to the China Western Development policy introduced by the State Council to boost economic development in Western China. Its per capita GDP for 2003 was 9,710 RMB (1172 USD).
Oil and gas extraction industry in Aksu and Karamay is booming, with the West-East Gas Pipeline connecting to Shanghai.
Xinjiang's exports amounted to 3.047 billion USD, while import turned out to be 2.589 billion USD in 2004. Most of the overall import/export volume in Xinjiang was directed to and from Kazakhstan through Ala Pass (External Link). China's first border free trade zone (Horgos Free Trade Zone) was located at the Xinjiang-Kazakhstan border city of Horgos (External Link). Horgos is the largest land port in China's western region and it has easy access to the Central Asian market. Xinjiang will also open its second border trade market to Kazakhstan in March 2006, the Jeminay Border Trade Zone. (External Link)
Demographics
Xinjiang is home to several Muslim Turkic groups including the Uyghurs and the Kazakhs. Other PRC minority ethnic groups include Hui Chinese, the Kyrgyz, the Mongols, the Russians, the Xibes, the Tajik, the Uzbek, the Tatars, and the Manchus.
The percentage of ethnic Han Chinese in Xinjiang has grown from 6 percent in 1949 to an official tally of over 40 percent at present. This figure doesn't include military personnel or their families, or the many unregistered migrant workers. Much of this transformation can be attributed to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a semi-military organization of settlers that has built farms, towns, and cities over scattered parts of Xinjiang. The demographic transformation is held by Uyghur independence advocates as a threat to Uyghurs and other non-Han ethnicities in maintaining their culture, similar to the case of Tibet. While at the same time, the minorities of Xinjiang were exempted from the One-Child Policy and many Uyghur people emigrated out of Xinjiang to other parts of China, the percentage of Uyghur people in the total population of China has increased steadily.
| Ethnic groups in Xinjiang, 2000 census |
| Nationality |
Population |
Percentage |
| Uyghur |
8,345,622 |
45.21 |
| Han |
7,489,919 |
40.58 |
| Kazakh |
1,245,023 |
6.74 |
| Hui |
839,837 |
4.55 |
| Kirghiz |
158,775 |
0.86 |
| Mongol |
149,857 |
0.81 |
| Dongxiang |
55,841 |
0.30 |
| Tajik |
39,493 |
0.21 |
| Xibe |
34,566 |
0.19 |
| Manchu |
19,493 |
0.11 |
| Tujia |
15,787 |
0.086 |
| Uzbek |
12,096 |
0.066 |
| Russian |
8935 |
0.048 |
| Miao |
7006 |
0.038 |
| Tibetan |
6153 |
0.033 |
| Zhuang |
5642 |
0.031 |
| Daur |
5541 |
0.030 |
| Tatar |
4501 |
0.024 |
| Tuvans |
3260 |
|
| Salar |
3762 |
0.020 |
Excludes members of the People's Liberation Army in active service.
Source: Department of Population, Social, Science and Technology Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (国家统计局人口和社会科技统计司) and Department of Economic Development of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of China (国家民族事务委员会经济发展司), eds. Tabulation on Nationalities of 2000 Population Census of China (《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》). 2 vols. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House (民族出版社), 2003. (ISBN 7-105-05425-5)
In general, Uyghurs are the majority in western Xinjiang, including the prefectures of Kashgar, Khotan, Kizilsu, and Aksu, as well as Turpan prefecture in eastern Xinjiang. Han Chinese are the majority in eastern and northern Xinjiang, including the cities of Urumqi, Karamay, Shihezi and the prefectures of Changji, Bortala, Bayin'gholin, Ili (especially the city of Kuitun), and Kumul. Kazakhs are mostly concentrated in Ili prefecture in northern Xinjiang.
1—Ili AP is composed of Kuitun DACLC, Tacheng Prefecture, Aletai Prefecture, as well as former Ili Prefecture. Ili Prefecture has been disbanded and its former area is now directly administered by Ili AP.
Source: 2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料，民族出版社，2003/9 (ISBN 7-105-05425-5)
Does not include members of the People's Liberation Army in active service.
P = Prefecture; AP = Autonomous prefecture; PLC = Prefecture-level city; DACLC = Directly-administered county-level city
Some Uighur scholars claim descent from both the Turkic Uighurs and the pre-Turkic Tocharians (or Tokharians, whose language was Indo-European), and relatively fair-skin, hair and eyes, as well as other so-called 'Caucasoid' physical traits, are not uncommon among them. In general Uyghurs resemble those peoples who live around them in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
In 2002, there were 9,632,600 males (growth rate of 1.0%) and 9,419,300 females (growth rate of 2.2%). The population overall growth rate was 10.9‰, with 16.3‰ of birth rate and 5.4‰ mortality rate.
HIV/AIDS
With a population of about 20 million and an officially estimated 60,000 infections, Xinjiang has one-tenth of China’s AIDS cases and the highest HIV infection rate in the country. Chinese authorities estimate that Kashgar Prefecture, with a population of about three million, has 780 cases, but public health experts here say the real figure is probably four times that and rising fast.
Until recently, addicts were largely left to the police, who regarded them as simple criminals whose drug use was to be combated mercilessly. Resistance to treating drug addiction as a public health concern has been high, mirroring what some international health experts say was, more generally, a slow response to HIV/AIDS in China.
Media
The Xinjiang Networking Transmission Limited operates the Urumqi People Broadcasting Station and the Xinjiang People Broadcasting Station, broadcasting in the Mandarin (dialect), Uyghur (dialect), Kazak and Mongolian.
Sports
Professional sports teams in Xinjiang include:
Chinese Basketball Association
External results
Click here for more details on Xinjiang
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