X is for Xinjiang

Fast Facts

• Named for: The full name is the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR)
• Capital: Ürümqi
• Long/Lat: 41 N/85 E, about 13 hours or 7000 mi from CV to the Taklmakan Desert, going west.
• Population: 25,890,000 or 1.3 million CVs
• Size: 642,000 sq mi or 10x CVs
• Avg temp in April: 55 F/15 C (mountainous)
• Median household income: $10,000 GDP/per capita but income???
• Ethnicity: 44% Uygur/42% Han
• Main industries: Agriculture, mining for natural resources

At the end of the alphabet, there seem to be a lot of wiggling and hedging. I am chagrined that I had to include non-UN members, countries not really independent, and now this X. Xinjiang is not a country–not even disputed as a country–but simply a region within China. There is a dispute, but we’ll get to that. It’s simply that there are no countries beginning with an “X,” so either it was live with this region, skip the letter, spell names in Catalan (which uses X), or choose a different theme. I’ll take the penalty point and move on.

At over 640,000 sq mi, Xinjiang would be the 16th largest country in the world. It’s bigger than Texas, California, Nevada, and Minnesota combined. At nearly 26 million people, it’s the 60th largest in population, which is more people than Florida. If it were a country, it would dwarf the rest of the Small Countries on my list. (I wonder if it would be bigger than all combined–let’s see, if I put them all in a spreadsheet to add their populations and …nahhh.)

However, Xinjiang has an interesting status. It was designated as the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) back in 1955. A brisk walk through the history before and after that will remind us of what boundary states are about, even those giant regions within a giant country.

Historically, Xinjiang spread across a wide basin–the Tarim basin–ringed by a series of mountains, Tian Shan to the north and Kunlun to the south. Scholars are careful to note that Xinjiang was not simply a partial stop on the Silk Road, but the road passed through it, which was its claim to worldwide fame.

As you may recall (if only from my A-Z Silk Road posts of 2022), the general idea was for spices, silk, precious metals, and handicrafts to pass back and forth between China and Arabia, as well as into the trading centers around the Mediterranean, Rome, Egypt and beyond. To pass through Northern China was difficult because of the mountains and desert, but north they would go because the Himalayas were in the south.

This trading center in the middle of “nowhere” showed the signs of mixed culture. Mummies found in the region, such as Yingpan Man from 300 C.E., exhibit a mix of cultural attributes from Greece, Central Asia, and China. The road went both ways: Roman women wore Chinese silk and Chinese emperors drank from European glassware, although there was a trade imbalance even then. Mostly gold flowed eastward as the goods flowed westward. See my previous post on the Jade Gate for the ancient details.

To the Europeans, these were Asians, but as traders and nomads from the unique terrain, they were also cousins of the Mongols, Russians, and Turks. (The Turks emerged from here and took their language to the west). Islam seeped up here, and when Chinggis Khan united these regions, he didn’t force a change of religion or culture. He just demanded tribute; the Qara Khitai paid it and became a solid ally, so much that Chinggi’s son Ogedei Khan made Xinjiang one of his strongholds.

When the Mongol Empire divided into four, this was a border area between the Chagatai Khanate and the Yuan Dynasty of Kublai Khan. Kublai took it. There were also Buddhists at Szungar in the south, and the fifth Dalai Lama pushed his “troops” into the southern part of Xinjiang. Thus, the Turkic Muslims asked for help from the Chinese Qing Dynasty to push out the Buddhists. The Manchurians re-incorporated the region during the 18-19th century. The early Chinese Republic had it when the Soviets invaded (1937) from the west. It’s mountainous desert–who would want to conquer such a poor place, full of mixed nomads? Yet it was a strategic buffer zone, and it had those passes north of the Himalayas. Like many other middle border countries in my series, this region was fought over.

In the late ’30s, as Chiang Khai Shek and Mao’s People Republic vied for controlling much of China, both of them allied with but also rebuffed Soviet-backed leaders in Xinjiang. ( am condensing 25 encyclopedia paragraphs for you). Mao won. In 1955, this region was incorporated into China but in an agreement that labelled it an autonomous region. In theory, that meant the People’s Republic would allow the Xinjiang people–Uyghurs–to maintain their own unique culture, religion (Islam), and identity.

In theory. In practice, the governing party wanted control. They wanted a military base, free access to the roads and passes, ability to strip mine natural resources at will, and loyalty to the party above all ethnicity and religion. That meant that ethnic separatism was not, ultimately, allowed.

In the last dozen years or so, the Chinese authorities have put increasing pressure on the Uyghurs to not be Uyghurs. In name, they are autonomous. In reality, those who try to maintain their culture have been imprisoned for maintaining an ethnic identity or insisting on being Uyghurs–yes, imprisonable offenses. When in doubt, leaders are called and accuse of corruption.

Xinjiang is not going to become a separate sovereign state. But they have held on to their religion and culture through difficult times. My money’s still on the Uyghurs staying Uyghurs, regardless of what Beijing labels them. Time will tell, as it always does.