Posted by Martyn
China’s security forces in X1njiang will be on full alert this weekend as the autonomous region celebrates its 50th anniversary of either occupation or peaceful liberation, depending on whom you ask. Chinese security chief Luo Gan told police in X1njiang to “prepare for danger” ahead of the celebrations after accusing a dissident of plotting to sabotage the festivities. He also urged the armed security forces to crack down on criminals in order to create a “safer environment for economic growth and social progress”, China’s state press reported on Thursday.
Officially, more than 260 terrorist acts have been committed in X1njiang in the past two decades, killing 160 and wounding 440. However, the real figures are rumoured to be much, much higher. Terrorist activity escalated in the late 90s as China prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the PRC. A spate of bombs attacks rocked both Urumqi and even Beijing.
The area officially called X1njiang or “New Frontier” has a long and colourful history. Around 2,000 years ago, control of the area bounced back and forth between the northern Xiongnu tribes and Han China, changing hands several times until it was overrun by tribes like the Tuyuhun and the Rouran at the end of the 5th century. In the 6th century, X1njiang was incorporated into the vast Turk Empire. The Sui Dynasty (581-618AD) drove the Turks back and extended its control into southeast X1njiang. The armies of the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) then took over the entire region. In the 8th century, with the Tang in steep decline, T1bet launched a massive and successful invasion of China with it’s frontline soldiers stretching from northern X1njiang right down to modern day Yunnan reaching (and sacking) the Tang capital in 763.
For the next 100 years, southern X1njiang was a T1betan protectorate and its northern sections ruled by an Uyghur khan. Thereafter followed several hundred years of fragmentation between various Muslim tribes until the Khitan empire unified the region after fleeing the Jurchen onslaught in 1132. Genghis Khan incorporated the area into the Mongol Empire in 1218. After its collapse, the Chagatai Khan ruled until the 15th century when the area again split into separate Muslim states. It was then incorporated into the Mongol Jungar Empire in the 17th century until the Manchus, after more than half a century of incursions, captured Jungar Khan in 1755 and the whole area became part of the Qing Empire.
In the 19th century Russian incursions forced the Qing to cede large tracts of the northwest to Russia and the neighbouring Khanate of Kokand invaded most of the rest, leaving Qing China with only a few fortress towns under its control. This was later reversed when, in 1884, the name “X1njiang” was officially coined and formally incorporated into China proper. The Republic of China inherited the region from the Qing in 1912. During warlord rule, two Ea5t Turk1stan Republics were declared in 1933 and 1944.
The 1944 republic is the subject of some controversy. Official Chinese history claims it was part of the communist revolution whereas others claim it was an independent republic. Depending of one’s view of this event, PLA troops either entered or invaded the region in 1949. A formal request by Mao to the CCP’s paymaster Stalin resulted in Soviet jets being used to slaughter the legions of vehemently anti-c0mmunist Muslim cavalry in X1njiang at the time. Finally, in 1955 the province was formerly re-established as an autonomous region of the PRC.
Richard Burger is the author of Behind the Red Door: Sex in China, an exploration of China's sexual revolution and its clash with traditional Chinese values.