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110-767: The district includes all of Xinjiang , plus the Ngari district of Tibet . It has also direct military jurisdiction over the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). The Xinjiang Military District of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) was founded in December 1949 as a subordinate military area to the Northwest Military Region and was elevated to a major military region in May 1955, operating directly under

220-678: A 1,200 km (750 mi) road connecting Xinjiang and western Tibet , of which 179 km (112 mi) ran south of the Johnson Line through the Aksai Chin region claimed by India. Aksai Chin was easily accessible to the Chinese, but was more difficult for the Indians on the other side of the Karakorams to reach. The Indians did not learn of the existence of the road until 1957, which was confirmed when

330-505: A combination of disease and warfare, and recovery took generations. Han and Hui merchants were initially only allowed to trade in the Tarim Basin; their settlement in the Tarim Basin was banned until the 1830 Muhammad Yusuf Khoja invasion , when the Qing rewarded merchants for fighting off Khoja by allowing them to settle in the basin. The Uyghur Muslim Sayyid and Naqshbandi Sufi rebel of

440-687: A documented history of at least 2,500 years, a succession of people and empires have vied for control over all or parts of this territory. The territory came under the rule of the Qing dynasty in the 18th century, which was later replaced by the Republic of China . Since 1949 and the Chinese Civil War , it has been part of the People's Republic of China. In 1954, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established

550-570: A few years earlier by the Kashmiris. In 1878 the Chinese had reconquered Xinjiang , and by 1890 they already had Shahidulla before the issue was decided. By 1892, China had erected boundary markers at Karakoram Pass . In 1897 a British military officer, Sir John Ardagh , proposed a boundary line along the crest of the Kun Lun Mountains north of the Yarkand River . At that time, Britain

660-554: A large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. Such terrain models are known to be used in military training and simulation, although usually on a much smaller scale. Local authorities in Ningxia claim that their model of Aksai Chin is part of a tank training ground, built in 1998 or 1999. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese forces near Pangong Tso threw rocks at each other. On 11 September 2019, People's Liberation Army troops confronted Indian troops on

770-478: A memo directing that the maps of India be revised to show definite boundaries on all frontiers. Up to this point, the boundary in the Aksai Chin sector, based on the Johnson Line, had been described as "undemarcated." Despite this region being nearly uninhabitable and having no resources, it remains strategically important for China as it connects Tibet and Xinjiang. During the 1950s, the People's Republic of China built

880-461: A military base in the province and deployed several military and economic advisors. Sheng invited a group of Chinese Communists to Xinjiang (including Mao Zedong's brother, Mao Zemin ), but executed them all in 1943 in fear of a conspiracy. In 1944, President and Premier of China Chiang Kai-shek , informed by the Soviet Union of Shicai's intention to join it, transferred him to Chongqing as

990-707: A natural boundary, which would set the British borders up to the Indus River watershed while leaving the Tarim River watershed in Chinese control, and Chinese control of this tract would present a further obstacle to Russian advance in Central Asia. The British presented this line, known as the Macartney–MacDonald Line , to the Chinese in 1899 in a note by Sir Claude MacDonald . The Qing government did not respond to

1100-632: A result of a long struggle with the Dzungars which began during the 17th century. In 1755, with the help of the Oirat noble Amursana , the Qing attacked Ghulja and captured the Dzungar khan. After Amursana's request to be declared Dzungar khan went unanswered, he led a revolt against the Qing. Qing armies destroyed the remnants of the Dzungar Khanate over the next two years, and many Han Chinese and Hui moved into

1210-749: A revised boundary, initially suggested by Macartney and developed by the Governor General of India Lord Elgin . This boundary placed the Lingzi Tang plains, which are south of the Laktsang range, in India, and Aksai Chin proper, which is north of the Laktsang range, in China. This border, along the Karakoram Mountains , was proposed and supported by British officials for a number of reasons. The Karakoram Mountains formed

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1320-542: Is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County , Hotan Prefecture , Xinjiang and partly in Rutog County , Ngari Prefecture , Tibet and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and China since 1959. It is claimed by India as part of its Leh District , Ladakh Union Territory . Aksai Chin was first mentioned by Muhammad Amin,

1430-582: Is concurrent with the Chinese Aksai Chin claim line. The Akasy region is sparely populated region with few settlements such as Heweitan , Khurnak Fort , Tianshuihai and Dahongliutan and Kangxiwar which lays north of it, with the latter being the forward headquarters of the Xinjiang Military Command during the 1962 Sino-Indian War . Aksai Chin covers an area of approximately 38,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi). The area

1540-537: Is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Chinese Tajiks ( Pamiris ), Han Chinese , Hui , Kazakhs , Kyrgyz , Mongols , Russians , Sibe , Tibetans , and Uyghurs . There are more than a dozen autonomous prefectures and counties for minorities in Xinjiang. Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan , Chinese Turkistan, East Turkestan and East Turkistan. With

1650-506: Is home to most of the Uyghur population, about nine million people, out of a total population of twenty million; fifty-five percent of Xinjiang's Han population, mainly urban, live in the north. This created an economic imbalance, since the northern Junghar basin (Dzungaria) is more developed than the south. Land reform and collectivization occurred in Uyghur agricultural areas at the same general pace as in most of China. Hunger in Xinjiang

1760-579: Is largely a vast high-altitude desert with a low point (on the Karakash River ) at about 4,300 m (14,100 ft) above sea level. In the southwest, mountains up to 7,000 m (23,000 ft) extending southeast from the Depsang Plains form the de facto border (Line of Actual Control) between Aksai Chin and Indian-controlled Kashmir. In the north, the Kunlun Range separates Aksai Chin from

1870-566: Is no Uyghur word resembling "chin" for China. Amin's Aksai Chin was not a defined region, stretching indefinitely east into Tibet south of the Kunlun Mountains . In 1895, the British envoy to Kashgar told the Chinese Taotai that Aksai Chin was a "loose name for an ill-defined, elevated tableland", part of which lay in Indian and part in Chinese territory. The current meaning of the term

1980-412: Is not given to mountains and rivers. It is given to particular nationalities." Some Uyghur Communists proposed the name " Tian Shan Uyghur Autonomous Region" instead. The Han Communists in the central government denied the name Xinjiang was colonialist and denied that the central government could be colonialists both because they were communists and because China was a victim of colonialism. However, due to

2090-460: Is the area under dispute between India and China, having evolved in repeated usage since Indian independence in 1947. Because of its 5,000-metre (16,000 ft) elevation, the desolation of Aksai Chin meant that it had no human importance. For military campaigns, the region held great importance, as it was on the only route from the Tarim Basin to Tibet that was passable all year round. Ladakh

2200-585: The 8th-largest country subdivision in the world, Xinjiang spans over 1.6 million square kilometres (620,000 sq mi) and has about 25 million inhabitants. Xinjiang borders the countries of Afghanistan , India , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Mongolia , Pakistan , Russia , and Tajikistan . The rugged Karakoram , Kunlun and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang's borders, as well as its western and southern regions. The Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract regions are claimed by India but administered by China. Xinjiang also borders

2310-729: The Afaqi suborder, Jahangir Khoja was sliced to death (Lingchi) in 1828 by the Manchus for leading a rebellion against the Qing . According to Robert Montgomery Martin , many Chinese with a variety of occupations were settled in Dzungaria in 1870; in Turkestan (the Tarim Basin), however, only a few Chinese merchants and garrison soldiers were interspersed with the Muslim population. The 1765 Ush rebellion by

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2420-488: The Bronze Age linked to the expansion of early Indo-Europeans . These population dynamics gave rise to a heterogeneous demographic makeup. Iron Age samples from Xinjiang show intensified levels of admixture between Steppe pastoralists and northeast Asians, with northern and eastern Xinjiang showing more affinities with northeast Asians, and southern Xinjiang showing more affinity with central Asians. Between 2009 and 2015,

2530-825: The Central Military Commission 's authority. In 1979, it was rebranded as the Urumqi Military Region ; in June 1985, it amalgamated with the Lanzhou Military Region and concurrently established the Xinjiang Military Region, which operated at the corps level under the auspices of the Lanzhou Military Region; in April 1992, it was elevated to full military status following the dissolution of

2640-665: The Gobi Desert while Xi refers to the west. The Tang Empire had established the Protectorate General to Pacify the West or Anxi Protectorate ( 安西都護府 ) in 640 to control the region. During the Qing dynasty , the northern part of Xinjiang, Dzungaria was known as Zhunbu ( 準部 , " Dzungar region") and the Southern Tarim Basin was known as Huijiang ( 回疆 , "Muslim Frontier"). Both regions merged after Qing dynasty suppressed

2750-614: The Kokand Khanate ) fled from the khanate in 1865 after losing Tashkent to the Russians . Beg settled in Kashgar, and soon controlled Xinjiang. Although he encouraged trade, built caravansareis , canals and other irrigation systems, his regime was considered harsh. The Chinese took decisive action against Yettishar; an army under General Zuo Zongtang rapidly approached Kashgaria, reconquering it on 16 May 1877. After reconquering Xinjiang in

2860-399: The Kunlun Mountains . The Peking University Atlas , published in 1925, also put the Aksai Chin in India. When British officials learned of Soviet officials surveying the Aksai Chin for Sheng Shih-tsai , warlord of Xinjiang in 1940–1941, they again advocated the Johnson Line. At this point the British had still made no attempts to establish outposts or control over the Aksai Chin, nor was

2970-632: The Protectorate General to Pacify the West ( 安西都護府 ) or Anxi Protectorate, in 640 to control the region. During the Anshi Rebellion , which nearly destroyed the Tang dynasty, Tibet invaded the Tang on a broad front from Xinjiang to Yunnan . It occupied the Tang capital of Chang'an in 763 for 16 days, and controlled southern Xinjiang by the end of the century. The Uyghur Khaganate took control of Northern Xinjiang, much of Central Asia and Mongolia at

3080-644: The Revolt of the Altishahr Khojas in 1759 and became the region of "Xiyu Xinjiang" ( 西域新疆 , literally "Western Regions' New Frontier"), later simplified as "Xinjiang" ( 新疆 ; formerly romanized as "Sinkiang"). The official name was given during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor in 1878. It can be translated as "new frontier" or "new territory". In fact, the term "Xinjiang" was used in many other places conquered, but never were ruled by Chinese empires directly until

3190-630: The Tarim Basin , where the rest of Hotan County is situated. According to a recent detailed Chinese map, no roads cross the Kunlun Range within Hotan Prefecture, and only one track does so, over the Hindutash Pass. Aksai Chin area has number of endorheic basins with many salt or soda lakes . The major salt lakes are Surigh Yilganing Kol , Tso Tang , Aksai Chin Lake , Hongshan Lake , etc. Much of

3300-535: The Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai . The most well-known route of the historic Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border. Xinjiang is divided into the Dzungarian Basin ( Dzungaria ) in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range and only about 9.7 percent of Xinjiang's land area is fit for human habitation. It

3410-626: The Uyghur meaning "white stone desert", including several British colonial, modern Western, Chinese, and Indian sources. Some modern sources interpret it to mean "white brook" instead. At least one source interprets Aksai to mean "eastern" in the Yarkandi Uyghur dialect . The word "Chin" was taken to mean "China" by some Chinese, Western, and Indian sources. At least one source takes it to mean "pass". Other sources omit "Chin" in their interpretations. Van Driem states that there

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3520-426: The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) to strengthen border defense against the Soviet Union and promote the local economy by settling soldiers into the region. In 1955, Xinjiang was administratively changed from a province into an autonomous region . In recent decades, abundant oil and mineral reserves have been found in Xinjiang and it is currently China's largest natural-gas-producing region. From

3630-773: The Yarkandi guide of the Schlagintweit brothers , who were contracted in 1854 by the British East India Company to explore Central Asia. Amin explained its meaning as "the great white sand desert". Linguist George van Driem states that the name intended by Amin was Aqsai Chöl ( Uyghur : ﺋﺎﻗﺴﺎﻱ چۆل ; Cyrillic : ақсай чөл ) which could mean "white ravine desert" or "white coomb desert". The word chöl for desert seems to have been corrupted in English transliteration into "chin". Some sources have interpreted Aksai to have

3740-550: The "infidel Kalmuks" (Dzungars) built Buddhist monuments in their region. The Turkic Muslims of the Turfan and Kumul oases then submitted to the Qing dynasty and asked China to free them from the Dzungars; the Qing accepted their rulers as vassals. They warred against the Dzungars for decades before defeating them; Qing Manchu Bannermen then conducted the Dzungar genocide , nearly eradicating them and depopulating Dzungaria. The Qing freed

3850-645: The 13th century, although it was ruled by foreign overlords. The Kara-Khanids converted to Islam. The Uyghur state in Eastern Xinjiang, initially Manichean , later converted to Buddhism . Remnants of the Liao dynasty from Manchuria entered Xinjiang in 1132, fleeing rebellion by the neighboring Jurchens . They established a new empire, the Qara Khitai (Western Liao), which ruled the Kara-Khanid and Uyghur-held parts of

3960-608: The 1860s, Xinjiang had been under Qing rule for a century. The region was captured in 1759 from the Dzungar Khanate , whose population (the Oirats ) became the targets of genocide. Xinjiang was primarily semi-arid or desert and unattractive to non-trading Han settlers, and others (including the Uyghurs) settled there. The Dungan Revolt by the Muslim Hui and other Muslim ethnic groups

4070-429: The 1950s, India collected salt from various lakes in Aksai Chin to study the economic feasibility of salt mining operations in the area. By the end of the 1950s, in addition to having constructed a road, numerous PLA Ground Force outposts were constructed in a few locations, including at Tianwendian , Kongka Pass , Heweitan and Tianshuihai . The road was later upgraded to the China National Highway 219 . In

4180-419: The 1990s to the 2010s, the East Turkestan independence movement , separatist conflict and the influence of radical Islam have resulted in unrest in the region with occasional terrorist attacks and clashes between separatist and government forces. These conflicts prompted the Chinese government to commit a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in

4290-451: The Afaqi Khoja leader Burhan-ud-din and his brother, Khoja Jihan, from Dzungar imprisonment and appointed them to rule the Tarim Basin as Qing vassals. The Khoja brothers reneged on the agreement, declaring themselves independent leaders of the Tarim Basin. The Qing and the Turfan leader Emin Khoja crushed their revolt, and by 1759 China controlled Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. The Manchu Qing dynasty gained control of eastern Xinjiang as

4400-445: The Afaqi and the Afaq Khoja invited the 5th Dalai Lama (the leader of the Tibetans ) to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The Dalai Lama then called on his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Dzungar Khanate to act on the invitation. The Dzungar Khanate conquered the Tarim Basin in 1680, setting up the Afaqi Khoja as their puppet ruler. After converting to Islam, the descendants of the previously- Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan believed that

4510-492: The British attempted to promote a caravan route via the western side of Aksai Chin as an alternative to the difficult and tariffed Karakoram Pass . The route, referred to as the Chang Chenmo line after the starting point in Chang Chenmo River valley, was discussed in the House of Commons in 1874. In addition of being longer and higher elevation than Karakoram Pass, it also goes through the desolate desert of Aksai Chin. By 1890s, traders had mostly given up on this route. In

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4620-443: The District are as follows (including their main garrison location). Xinjiang is one of the few military regions in which full divisions are still retained as an organizational level post the 2015 reforms (which reduced most divisions into combined arms brigades). Due to the very long border it patrols, there are also fifteen Border Defense regiments assigned as well as the main maneuver force. The Border Defense regiments cover some of

4730-466: The Indian claim line extends northeast of the Karakoram Mountains through the salt flats of the Aksai Chin, to set a boundary at the Kunlun Mountains , and incorporating part of the Karakash River and Yarkand River watersheds. From there, it runs east along the Kunlun Mountains, before turning southwest through the Aksai Chin salt flats, through the Karakoram Mountains, and then to Panggong Lake . On 1 July 1954, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote

4840-414: The Johnson-Ardagh and the Macartney-MacDonald lines were used on British maps of India. Until at least 1908, the British took the Macdonald line to be the boundary, but in 1911, the Xinhai Revolution resulted in the collapse of central power in China, and by the end of World War I , the British officially used the Johnson Line. However they took no steps to establish outposts or assert actual control on

4950-413: The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry the following year. During the Ili Rebellion , the Soviet Union backed Uyghur separatists to form the Second East Turkestan Republic (ETR) in the Ili region while most of Xinjiang remained under Kuomintang control. The People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang in 1949 , when Kuomintang commander Tao Zhiyue and government chairman Burhan Shahidi surrendered

5060-452: The Mongols"), Kashgaria, Little Bokhara, Serindia (due to Indian cultural influence) and, in Chinese, Xiyu ( 西域 ), meaning " Western Regions ". Between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD, the Han Empire established the Protectorate of the Western Regions or Xiyu Protectorate ( 西域都護府 ) in an effort to secure the profitable routes of the Silk Road . The Western Regions during the Tang era were known as Qixi ( 磧西 ). Qi refers to

5170-417: The Tang dynasty, a series of expeditions were conducted against the Western Turkic Khaganate and their vassals: the oasis states of southern Xinjiang. Campaigns against the oasis states began under Emperor Taizong with the annexation of Gaochang in 640. The nearby kingdom of Karasahr was captured by the Tang in 644 and the kingdom of Kucha was conquered in 649 . The Tang Dynasty then established

5280-444: The Tarim Basin for the next century. Although Khitan and Chinese were the primary administrative languages, Persian and Uyghur were also used. Present-day Xinjiang consisted of the Tarim Basin and Dzungaria and was originally inhabited by Indo-European Tocharians and Iranian Sakas who practiced Buddhism and Zoroastrianism . The Turfan and Tarim Basins were inhabited by speakers of Tocharian languages, with Caucasian mummies found in

5390-422: The Tarim Basin were originally ruled by the Chagatai Khanate and the nomadic Buddhist Oirat Mongols in Dzungaria ruled the Dzungar Khanate. The Naqshbandi Sufi Khojas , descendants of Muhammad , had replaced the Chagatayid Khans as rulers of the Tarim Basin during the early 17th century. There was a struggle between two Khoja factions: the Afaqi (White Mountain) and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain). The Ishaqi defeated

5500-441: The Tian Shan and the Turkic Muslim area south of the Tian Shan and ruled them in separate administrative units at first. However, Qing people began to think of both areas as part of one distinct region called Xinjiang. The very concept of Xinjiang as one distinct geographic identity was created by the Qing. During the Qing rule, no sense of "regional identity" was held by ordinary Xinjiang people; rather, Xinjiang's distinct identity

5610-476: The Tian Shan separate Dzungaria in the north from the Tarim Basin in the south. Dzungaria is a dry steppe and the Tarim Basin contains the massive Taklamakan Desert , surrounded by oases. In the east is the Turpan Depression . In the west, the Tian Shan split, forming the Ili River valley. The earliest inhabitants of the region encompassing modern day Xinjiang were genetically of Ancient North Eurasian and Northeast Asian origin, with later geneflow from during

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5720-403: The Tocharian language had high amounts of influence from Paleosiberian languages , such as Uralic and Yeniseian languages . Yuezhi culture is documented in the region. The first known reference to the Yuezhi was in 645 BC by the Chinese chancellor Guan Zhong in his work, Guanzi ( 管子 , Guanzi Essays: 73: 78: 80: 81). He described the Yúshì , 禺氏 (or Niúshì , 牛氏 ), as a people from

5830-407: The Turpan-Urumchi region 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; Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire conquered the Qara Khitai in 1218. Xinjiang was a stronghold of Ögedei Khan and later came under the control of his descendant, Kaidu . This branch of the Mongol family kept

5940-418: The Uyghur complaints, the administrative region would be named "Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region". Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names, Dzungaria north of the Tianshan Mountains and the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains, before Qing China unified them into one political entity called Xinjiang Province in 1884. At

6050-527: The Uyghurs against the Manchu began after Uyghur women were raped by the servants and son of Manchu official Su-cheng. It was said that "Ush Muslims had long wanted to sleep on [Sucheng and son's] hides and eat their flesh" because of the months-long abuse. The Manchu emperor ordered the massacre of the Uyghur rebel town; Qing forces enslaved the Uyghur children and women, and killed the Uyghur men. Sexual abuse of Uyghur women by Manchu soldiers and officials triggered deep Uyghur hostility against Manchu rule. By

6160-619: The Western Tarim Basin such as Loulan , the Xiaohe Tomb complex and Qäwrighul . These mummies have been previously suggested to have been Tocharian or Indo-European speakers, but recent evidence suggest that the earliest mummies belonged to a distinct population unrelated to Indo-European pastoralists and spoke an unknown language, probably a language isolate . Although many of the Tarim mummies were classified as Caucasoid by anthropologists, Tarim Basin sites also contain both "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid" remains, indicating contact between newly arrived western nomads and agricultural communities in

6270-478: The Xiongnu and Han China in which China eventually prevailed. During the 100s BCE, the Silk Road brought increasing Chinese economic and cultural influence to the region. In 60 BCE, Han China established the Protectorate of the Western Regions ( 西域都護府 ) at Wulei ( 烏壘 , near modern Luntai ), to oversee the region as far west as the Pamir Mountains . The protectorate was seized during the civil war against Wang Mang (r. AD 9–23), returning to Han control in 91 due to

6380-404: The Yuan dynasty at bay until their rule ended. During the Mongol Empire era the Yuan dynasty vied with the Chagatai Khanate for rule of the region and the latter controlled most of it. After the Chagatai Khanate divided into smaller khanates during the mid-14th century, the politically-fractured region was ruled by a number of Persianized Mongol Khans, including those from Moghulistan (with

6490-411: The area south of the Tianshan, while it was being argued over whether to turn Xinjiang into a province. Xinjiang is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million km (comparable in size to Iran ), which takes up about one sixth of the country's territory. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and India 's Leh district in Ladakh to the south, Qinghai and Gansu provinces to

6600-500: The army of the First East Turkestan Republic in the 1934 Battle of Kashgar , ending the republic after Chinese Muslims executed its two emirs: Abdullah Bughra and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra . The Soviet Union invaded the province ; it was brought under the control of northeast Han warlord Sheng Shicai after the 1937 Xinjiang War . Sheng ruled Xinjiang for the next decade with support from the Soviet Union , many of whose ethnic and security policies he instituted. The Soviet Union maintained

6710-456: The assistance of local Dughlat emirs), Uigurstan (later Turpan) and Kashgaria. These leaders warred with each other and the Timurids of Transoxiana to the west and the Oirats to the east: the successor Chagatai regime based in Mongolia and China. During the 17th century, the Dzungars established an empire over much of the region. The Mongolian Dzungars were the collective identity of several Oirat tribes which formed and maintained, one of

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6820-445: The boundaries of the state. Chinese and Tibetan officials were invited to jointly demarcate the border, but they did not show any interest. The British boundary commissioners fixed the southern part of the boundary up to the Chang Chenmo Valley , but regarded the area north of it as terra incognita . William Johnson , a civil servant with the Survey of India proposed the "Johnson Line" in 1865, which put Aksai Chin in Kashmir. This

6930-425: The corps-level structure; in October 1998, it was promoted to the status of vice-great-military region. The current Xinjiang Military District was created in 2016 from the former Lanzhou Military Region as part of the 2015 reforms . While it is officially under the jurisdiction of the Western Theater . The XMD covers the contested area of Aksai Chin , and it is a sensitive hotspot in China's borders. In 2020, it

7040-419: The early 1990s, a total of 19 billion yuan had been spent in Xinjiang on large- and medium-sized industrial projects, with an emphasis on developing modern transportation, communications infrastructure, and support for the oil and gas industries. A brisk cross-border shuttle trade by Uyghurs further developed following the adoption of the Soviet Union's perestroika . Aksai Chin Aksai Chin

7150-405: The east, Mongolia ( Bayan-Ölgii , Govi-Altai and Khovd Provinces ) to the east, Russia 's Altai Republic to the north and Kazakhstan ( Almaty and East Kazakhstan Regions ), Kyrgyzstan ( Issyk-Kul , Naryn and Osh Regions ), Tajikistan 's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region , Afghanistan 's Badakhshan Province and Pakistan 's Gilgit-Baltistan to the west. The east-west chain of

7260-421: The east. Mummies have been found in various locations in the Western Tarim Basin such as Loulan , the Xiaohe Tomb complex and Qäwrighul . Nomadic tribes such as the Yuezhi , Saka and Wusun were probably part of the migration of Indo-European speakers who had settled in Tarim Basin of Xinjiang long before the Xiongnu and Han Chinese. By the time the Han dynasty under Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) wrested

7370-401: The efforts of general Ban Chao . 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 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 degrees of success. After

7480-431: The final reunification of Northern China under the Northern Wei empire, its protectorate controlled what is now the southeastern region of Xinjiang. Local states such as Shule, Yutian , Guizi and Qiemo controlled the western region, 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. During

7590-415: The gradual Gaitu Guiliu administrative reform, including regions in Southern China. For instance, present-day Jinchuan County in Sichuan was then known as "Jinchuan Xinjiang", Zhaotong in Yunnan was named directly as "Xinjiang", Qiandongnan region, Anshun and Zhenning were named as "Liangyou Xinjiang" etc. In 1955, Xinjiang Province was renamed "Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region". The name that

7700-419: The ground. In 1927, the line was adjusted again as the government of British India abandoned the Johnson line in favor of a line along the Karakoram range further south. However, the maps were not updated and still showed the Johnson Line. From 1917 to 1933, the Postal Atlas of China , published by the Government of China in Peking had shown the boundary in Aksai Chin as per the Johnson line, which runs along

7810-400: The issue ever discussed with the governments of China or Tibet, and the boundary remained undemarcated at India's independence. After Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the newly independent India in October 1947, the government of India used the Johnson Line as the basis for its official boundary in the west, which included the Aksai Chin. From the Karakoram Pass (which is not under dispute),

7920-461: The last nomadic empires . The Dzungar Khanate covered Dzungaria, extending from the western Great Wall of China to present-day Eastern Kazakhstan and from present-day Northern Kyrgyzstan to Southern Siberia . Most of the region was renamed "Xinjiang" by the Chinese after the fall of the Dzungar Empire, which existed from the early 17th to the mid-18th century. The sedentary Turkic Muslims of

8030-452: The late 1870s from Yaqub Beg, the Qing dynasty established Xinjiang ("new frontier") as a province in 1884  – making it part of China, and dropping the old names of Zhunbu ( 準部 , Dzungar Region) and Huijiang (Muslimland). After Xinjiang became a Chinese province, the Qing government encouraged the Uyghurs to migrate from southern Xinjiang to other areas of the province (such as

8140-455: The late 1970s has exacerbated uneven regional development, more Uyghurs have migrated to Xinjiang's cities and some Han have migrated to Xinjiang for economic advancement. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made a nine-day visit to Xinjiang in 1981 and described the region as "unsteady". The Deng era reforms encouraged China's ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to establish small private companies for commodity transit, retail, and restaurants. By

8250-792: The mid-first millennium BC, the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." Crossed by the Northern Silk Road , the Tarim and Dzungaria regions were known as the Western Regions. At the beginning of the Han dynasty the region was ruled by the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people. During the 2nd century BC, the Han dynasty prepared for war against Xiongnu when Emperor Wu of Han dispatched Zhang Qian to explore

8360-523: The most challenging terrain in the world, and it is occasionally reported that some units still use horses for patrolling. Xinjiang Xinjiang , officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region , is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia . Being the largest province-level division of China by area and

8470-533: The mysterious kingdoms to the west and form an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. As a result of the war, the Chinese controlled the strategic region from the Ordos and Gansu corridor to Lop Nor . They separated the Xiongnu from the Qiang people on the south and gained direct access to the Western Regions. Han China sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the states of the region, beginning several decades of struggle between

8580-518: The north-west who supplied jade to the Chinese from the nearby mountains (also known as Yushi) in Gansu. The longtime jade supply from the Tarim Basin is 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

8690-415: The northern bank of Pangong Lake . A continued face-off in the 2020 China–India skirmishes of May and June 2020 between Indian and Chinese troops near Pangong Tso Lake culminated in a violent clash on 16 June 2020, with at least 20 deaths from the Indian side and no official reported deaths from the Chinese side. In 2021, Chinese state media reported 4 Chinese deaths. Both sides claimed provocation from

8800-698: The northern part of Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plains, located near Aksai Chin's largest river, the Karakash, which receives meltwater from a number of glaciers, crosses the Kunlun farther northwest, in Pishan County and enters the Tarim Basin, where it serves as one of the main sources of water for Karakax and Hotan Counties. The western part of Aksai Chin region is drained by the Tarim River. The eastern part of

8910-465: The note. According to some commentators, China believed that this had been the accepted boundary. The line is named after Henry McMahon , foreign secretary of British India and the chief British negotiator of the conference at Simla. The bilateral agreement between Tibet and Britain was signed by McMahon on behalf of the British government and Lonchen Shatra on behalf of the Tibetan government. Both

9020-546: The other. Aksai Chin is one of the two large disputed border areas between India and China. India claims Aksai Chin as the easternmost part of the union territory of Ladakh . China claims that Aksai Chin is part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region . The line that separates Indian-administered areas of Ladakh from Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and

9130-403: The pacified areas. The native Dzungar Oirat Mongols suffered greatly from the brutal campaigns and a simultaneous smallpox epidemic. Writer Wei Yuan described the resulting desolation in present-day northern Xinjiang as "an empty plain for several thousand li , with no Oirat yurt except those surrendered." It has been estimated that 80 percent of the 600,000 (or more) Dzungars died from

9240-720: The province and acceded in name to the Republic of China in March of that year. Balancing mixed ethnic constituencies, Yang controlled Xinjiang until his 1928 assassination after the Northern Expedition of the Kuomintang . The Kumul Rebellion and others broke out throughout Xinjiang during the early 1930s against Jin Shuren , Yang's successor, involving Uyghurs, other Turkic groups and Hui (Muslim) Chinese. Jin enlisted White Russians to crush

9350-502: The province including, according to some, genocide. The general region of Xinjiang has been known by many different names throughout time. These names include Altishahr , the historical Uyghur name for the southern half of the region referring to "the six cities" of the Tarim Basin , as well as Khotan, Khotay, Chinese Tartary , High Tartary, East Chagatay (it was the eastern part of the Chagatai Khanate ), Moghulistan ("land of

9460-459: The province to them. Five ETR leaders who were to negotiate with the Chinese about ETR sovereignty died in an airplane crash that year in the outskirts of Kabansk in the Russian SFSR . The PRC continued the system of settler colonialism and forced assimilation which had defined previous Chinese expansionism in Xinjiang. The PRC autonomous region was established on 1 October 1955, replacing

9570-519: The province; that year (the first modern census in China was taken in 1953), Uyghurs were 73 percent of Xinjiang's total population of 5.11 million. Although Xinjiang has been designated a "Uygur Autonomous Region" since 1954, more than 50 percent of its area is designated autonomous areas for 13 native non-Uyghur groups. Modern Uyghurs developed ethnogenesis in 1955, when the PRC recognized formerly separately self-identified oasis peoples. Southern Xinjiang

9680-444: The region between Qitai and the capital, largely inhabited by Han Chinese, and Ürümqi, Tacheng (Tabarghatai), Yili, Jinghe, Kur Kara Usu, Ruoqiang, Lop Nor and the lower Tarim River. In 1912, the Qing dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China . The ROC continued to treat the Qing territory as its own, including Xinjiang. Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor of Xinjiang, fled. One of his subordinates, Yang Zengxin , took control of

9790-638: The region contains several small endorheic basins. The largest of them is that of the Aksai Chin Lake , which is fed by the river of the same name. The region as a whole receives little precipitation as the Himalayas and the Karakoram block the rains from the Indian monsoon . The nearby Trans-Karakoram Tract is also the subject of ongoing dispute between China and India in the Kashmir dispute . Prior to 1950,

9900-663: The region. The area became Islamified during the 10th century with the conversion of the Kara-Khanid Khanate , who occupied Kashgar. During the mid-10th century, the Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan was attacked by the Turkic Muslim Karakhanid ruler Musa; the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan conquered Khotan around 1006. After Genghis Khan unified Mongolia and began his advance west the Uyghur state in

10010-562: The remains of 92 individuals in the Xiaohe Cemetery were analyzed for Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA markers. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the paternal lineages of the Xiaohe people were of almost all European origin, while the maternal lineages of the early population were diverse, featuring both East Eurasian and West Eurasian lineages, as well as a smaller number of Indian / South Asian lineages. lineages. Over time,

10120-505: The revolts. In the Kashgar region on 12 November 1933, the short-lived First East Turkestan Republic was self-proclaimed after debate about whether it should be called "East Turkestan" or "Uyghuristan". The region claimed by the ETR encompassed the Kashgar , Khotan and Aksu Prefectures in southwestern Xinjiang. The Chinese Muslim Kuomintang 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) defeated

10230-545: The road was shown in Chinese maps published in 1958. The construction of this highway was one of the triggers for the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The Indian position, as stated by Prime Minister Nehru, was that the Aksai Chin was "part of the Ladakh region of India for centuries" and that this northern border was a "firm and definite one which was not open to discussion with anybody". The Chinese premier Zhou Enlai argued that

10340-764: The same time. As Tibet and the Uyghur Khaganate declined in the mid-9th century, the Kara-Khanid Khanate (a confederation of Turkic tribes including the Karluks , Chigils and Yaghmas) controlled Western Xinjiang during the 10th and 11th centuries. After the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia was destroyed by the Kirghiz in 840, branches of the Uyghurs established themselves in Qocha (Karakhoja) and Beshbalik (near present-day Turfan and Ürümqi). The Uyghur state remained in eastern Xinjiang until

10450-422: The terrain and are highly mobile by definition. The XMD is divided into the northern district and the southern Xinjiang subdistrict (Nanjiang), which is a Corps-graded (正军级) unit responsible for the volatile Sino-Indian border. These two main sub-areas are then divided into the following command sectors, generally comprising a prefecture: As of 2022, the People's Liberation Army Ground Force units garrisoning

10560-400: The time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe dwelling, nomadic Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar people, while the Tarim Basin was inhabited by sedentary, oasis dwelling, Turkic-speaking Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghurs, who were governed separately until 1884. The Qing dynasty was well aware of the differences between the former Buddhist Mongol area to the north of

10670-431: The town of Huangyangtan , about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Yinchuan , the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia in China. A visual side-by-side comparison shows a very detailed duplication of Aksai Chin in the camp. The 900 m × 700 m (3,000 ft × 2,300 ft) model was surrounded by a substantial facility, with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of olive-coloured trucks and

10780-409: The upper Karakash River firmly within the territory of Xinjiang (see accompanying map). According to Francis Younghusband , who explored the region in the late 1880s, there was only an abandoned fort and not one inhabited house at Shahidulla when he was there – it was just a convenient staging post and a convenient headquarters for the nomadic Kirghiz . The abandoned fort had apparently been built

10890-476: The visitors of Aksai Chin were, for the most part, the occasional explorers, hunters, and nomads who passed through the area. Prior to European exploration in the 1860s, there were some jade mining operations on the Xinjiang side of Aksai Chin. They were abandoned by the time European explorers reached the area. In the 1860s to 1870s, in order to facilitate trade between the Indian subcontinent and Tarim Basin ,

11000-503: The west Eurasian maternal lineages were gradually replaced by east Eurasian maternal lineages. Outmarriage to women from Siberian communities, led to the loss of the original diversity of mtDNA lineages observed in the earlier Xiaohe population. The Tarim population was therefore always notably diverse, reflecting a complex history of admixture between people of Ancient North Eurasian , South Asian and Northeast Asian descent. The Tarim mummies have been found in various locations in

11110-714: The western Tarim Basin away from its previous overlords (the Xiongnu), it was inhabited by various peoples who included the Indo-European -speaking Tocharians in Turfan and Kucha , the Saka peoples centered in the Shule Kingdom and the Kingdom of Khotan , the various Tibeto-Burmese groups (especially people related to the Qiang ) as well as the Han Chinese people. Some linguists posit that

11220-593: The western border had never been delimited, that the Macartney-MacDonald Line, which left the Aksai Chin within Chinese borders was the only line ever proposed to a Chinese government, and that the Aksai Chin was already under Chinese jurisdiction, and that negotiations should take into account the status quo. In June 2006, satellite imagery on the Google Earth service revealed a 1:500 scale terrain model of eastern Aksai Chin and adjacent Tibet , built near

11330-507: Was concerned about the danger of Russian expansion as China weakened, and Ardagh argued that his line was more defensible. The Ardagh line was effectively a modification of the Johnson line, and became known as the "Johnson-Ardagh Line". In 1893, Hung Ta-chen, a senior Chinese official at St. Petersburg , gave maps of the region to George Macartney , the British consul general at Kashgar, which coincided in broad details. In 1899, Britain proposed

11440-602: Was conquered in 1842 by the armies of Raja Gulab Singh (Dogra) under the suzerainty of the Sikh Empire . The British defeat of the Sikhs in 1846 resulted in the transfer of the Jammu and Kashmir region including Ladakh to the British, who then installed Gulab Singh as the Maharaja under their suzerainty. The British appointed a boundary commission headed by Alexander Cunningham to determine

11550-576: Was fought in China's Shaanxi , Ningxia and Gansu provinces and in Xinjiang from 1862 to 1877. The conflict led to a reported 20.77 million deaths due to migration and war, with many refugees dying of starvation. Thousands of Muslim refugees from Shaanxi fled to Gansu; some formed battalions in eastern Gansu, intending to reconquer their lands in Shaanxi. While the Hui rebels were preparing to attack Gansu and Shaanxi, Yaqub Beg (an Uzbek or Tajik commander of

11660-457: Was given to the region by the Qing, since it had distinct geography, history and culture, while at the same time it was created by the Chinese, multicultural, settled by Han and Hui and separated from Central Asia for over a century and a half. In the late 19th century, it was still being proposed by some people that two separate regions be created out of Xinjiang, the area north of the Tianshan and

11770-608: Was not as great as elsewhere in China during the Great Leap Forward and a million Han Chinese fleeing famine resettled in Xinjiang. In 1980, China allowed the United States to establish electronic listening stations in Xinjiang so the United States could monitor Soviet rocket launches in central Asia in exchange for the United States authorizing the sale of dual-use civilian and military technology and nonlethal military equipment to China. The Chinese economic reform since

11880-514: Was originally proposed was simply "Xinjiang Autonomous Region" because that was the name for the imperial territory. This proposal was not well-received by Uyghurs in the Communist Party, who found the name colonialist in nature since it meant "new territory". Saifuddin Azizi , the first chairman of Xinjiang, registered his strong objections to the proposed name with Mao Zedong , arguing that "autonomy

11990-524: Was the XMD that got involved in skirmishes and a protracted stand-off with India. Recently (as of 2024) there have been efforts to create a "six-in-one" border defense system, in which the PLA, the police, the militia, party officials, government officials, and civilians would cooperate in patrolling the enormously long and harsh border of both the Xinjiang and Tibet MDs, with an emphasis on local nomadic tribes that know

12100-652: Was the time of the Dungan revolt , when China did not control most of Xinjiang , so this line was never presented to the Chinese. Johnson presented this line to the Maharaja of Kashmir, who then claimed the 18,000 square kilometres contained within, and by some accounts territory further north as far as the Sanju Pass in the Kun Lun Mountains . The Maharajah of Kashmir constructed a fort at Shahidulla (modern-day Xaidulla ), and had troops stationed there for some years to protect caravans. Eventually, most sources placed Shahidulla and

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