The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is part given even the PRC (the autonomous regions have similar range to the provincial but are characterized by being associated with ethnic minority groups) whose capital is Urumqi. He was granted the status of autonomous region on 1 October 1955.
"Xinjiang" is the name in Mandarin but in Manchu is "Ice Jecen" both meaning "New Frontier", a name given during the Qing Dynasty.
However, those who claim independence from China to the region prefer to call historical or ethnic names as Chinese Turkestan, East Turkestan or Uyghuristan.
Xinjiang is divided into two prefecture-level cities, seven prefectures and autonomous prefectures in May. Two of the seven prefectures are now part of the Autonomous Prefecture of Ili.
Below them there are 11 sectors, 20 district-level cities, 62 districts and 6 autonomous counties.
4 Level Cities District does not belong to any prefecture, and are de facto administered by the Corps of Xinjiang Production and Construction.
The region shares a border with Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Also borders the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet Autonomous Region.
It has an area of 1,600,000 km2, which makes it the largest province of China, with 17% of its total area and 25% of its borders. It is divided into two basins by the Tian Shan mountains: dzungariana basin to the north and the Tarim Basin to the south. This mountain range also defines its border with Kyrgyzstan and she is Torugart Pass (3,752 m).
Xinjiang is known for its fruits, especially grapes and melons. It also produces cotton, wheat, silk and nuts. Emphasizes the breeding of cattle. There are important deposits of minerals and oil.
The oil extraction industry in Aksu and gas and Karamay boomed due to the draft oil and gas pipeline to Shanghai.
Most of the volume of imports and exports to and from Kajazstán goes through Ala Pass. The first border free trade in China was established in the city of Horgos (Free Trade Area Horgos).
Horgos is the largest land port in western China and has easy access to markets in Central Asia. In 2006, it will open a second step towards Kazakhstan, the commercial area of the border Jeminay.
There are several groups in Xinjiang Muslim Turks as Uighurs and Kazakhs. Other minority groups are the Hui, Kyrgyz, Mongols, Russians, Xibe, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Tatars and Manchus.
The percentage of ethnic Han, sponsored by Beijing, has increased from 6% in 1949 to the current 40%, according to official data. This figure does not include military personnel and their families or the many unregistered migrant workers.
Much of this transformation can be attributed to the Production and Construction Corps in Xinjiang, a semi-military organization of settlers who built farms, towns and cities in various parts of the province.
Interestingly, the story that Wikipedia:
Uighurs in Kashgar, Xinjiang
In the early Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), the region depended on the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people based in modern day Mongolia. A. In the 2nd century C., arrived in the area Zhang Qian, the envoy of the Han, and would be the beginning of several decades of fighting with the Xiongnu by the dominance of the region.
Han won the year 60 a. C. established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in Wulei (near present Luntai) to oversee the entire region to Pamir.
During the usurpation of Wang Mang in China, the dependent states of the protectorate rebelled and returned under Xiongnu domination in 13 d. C.
Over the next century, the Han sent several expeditions to the region, re-establishing the protectorate from 1974 to 1976 period d. C., 91-107 d. C. and from 123 d. C. onwards.
After the fall of the Han Dynasty (220 AD), the protectorate was maintained under the Wei dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty.
The Western Jin Dynasty fell to successive waves of invasion of northern nomads in the early fourth century. The following kingdoms that ruled northwestern China, Liang Past, Former Qin, Later Liang Western Liang and tried to keep the Protectorate with mixed success.
After the final reunification of northern China under the Northern Wei dynasty, the Protectorate covered the southeastern third of Xinjiang today.
Local and Shule States, Yutian, Qiemo Guizi and controlled the western half, while the central area around Turpan was controlled by the Gaochang, descendants of the Northern Liang, one day ruled parts of what is now the province of Gansu.
In late May the Rouran Tuyuhun and began to invade the region and to assert its power in the southern and northern Xinjiang, respectively, and the Chinese Protectorate disappeared again.
In the 6th century, the Turks began to appear in the Altai region as vassals of the Rouran, to defeat a century later, establishing a vast empire that stretched across most of Central Asia, beyond the Aral Sea the west and Lake Baikal in the east.
D. 583 C. the Turkish Empire was divided into two halves, the western and eastern Xinjiang remained in the western half. D. 609 C., Sui Dynasty, China beat the Tuyuhun, taking control of the southeastern part of Xinjiang.
The Tang Dynasty, established in 618, was one of the most on expansion in Chinese history. From the year 620 he sent a series of expeditions against the Turks, forcing the surrender of the western Turks in 657. Xinjiang was placed under the Anxi Protectorate (Protectorate Peacemaker of the West ").
The protectorate did not outlast the decline of the Dynasty in the 8th century. During the devastating Anshi Rebellion, Tibet invaded China Tang on a wide front from Xinjiang to Yunnan, occupied the capital in 763 and taking control of southern Xinjiang by the end of the century. At the same time, the Uighur Khanate took control of northern Xinjiang, as well as a large part of Central Asia, including Mongolia.
Both Tibet and the Uighur Khanate declined in the mid 9th century, entering the area in an era of fragmentation. The Kara-Khanid Khanate controlled the western Xinjiang during the 10th and 11th centuries while the Uighurs branches were established in central Xinjiang in the same period.
In 1132, the remnants of the Khitan Empire from Manchuria entered Xinjiang, fleeing the violent attacks by the Jurchen. Established a regime in exile, the Kara-Khitan Khanate, which unified the current Xinjiang for a century.
The Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan conquered the Kara-Khitan in 1218. After the disintegration of the empire, Xinjiang was ruled by Chagatai Khanate, one of the successor states of the empire.
In the 15th century the Chagatai Khanate disintegrated in the states of Gulja, Yarkand, and Turpan. In the 17th century the Dzungar (Oirat, Kalmyks) established an empire over much of the region.
The Kalmucks controlled a vast region known in the West as Grand Tartary Kalmyk Empire, which stretched from Great Wall to the Don River and from the Himalayas to Siberia.
The Manchu Empire
The Qing Empire, established by the Manchus took control over eastern Xinjiang after the defeat of the Dzungar in 1697. In 1755, the Manchu Empire attacked and captured the jan Gulja of Dzung.
In 1759, a rebellion in the south of the Tian Mountains was crushed and cemented the power Manchu on Xinjiang. The Manchus established the headquarters of the area in Gulja.
Khotan Market
A mid-19th century, the Russian Empire began to invade China Ching by its northern border. In 1864 most of the northwestern Xinjiang to Lake Balkhash, was ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Tacheng. This area is now part of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. That same year, the rebellions were happening all over Xinjiang, including Kucha, Khotan, Kasghar, Turpan and other areas.
In the spring of 1865, Yakub Beg, ruler of neighboring Khanate of Kokand, entered Xinjiang via Kashgar, and conquered almost all the province over the next six years. In 1871, Russia took the Ili River valley, including Gulja. By then, China remained only a few strongholds, including Tacheng.
Yaqub Beg's government lasted until General Zuo Zongtang (also known as General Tso) reconquered the region between 1875 and 1877 for Ching, who in 1881 recovered Gulja region. In 1884 he established Xinjiang ("New Frontier") as a province within the Chinese political system.
In 1912 the Ching Dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China. Yuan Dahua, the governor of Xinjiang, recognized the Republic in March of that year.
After the insurgency against the governor Yang Zengxin in the early thirties, a rebellion in Kashgar led to the establishment of the First East Turkestan Republic in 1933. Xinjiang came under the control of warlord Sheng Shicai, who ruled the province during the next decade.
A Second East Turkestan Republic (also known as the Revolution of the Three Districts) existed between 1944 and 1949 with the support of the Soviet Union in what is now the 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 usual interpretation in the PRC, the Second Republic was the Revolution of Xinjiang, part of the Communist Revolution, the Republic agreed to this and welcomed the PLA, a process that is now known as the Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang.
However, independence advocates view the Second Republic as an effort to establish an independent state and the PLA entry as an invasion. The Autonomous Region was established on October 11, 1955, replacing the province. The first nuclear test in the PRC took place on October 16, 1964 at Lop Nor.
Tensions remain in the region due to the independence aspirations of the Uighurs and what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe as repression of non-Han culture Conversely, many Han Chinese perceive the policy of ethnic autonomy as discriminatory CPM against them.
Supporters of independence believe that Xinjiang is the Chinese government on Chinese imperialism. These tensions occasionally result in serious incidents and violent clashes, as the Exodus of the Kazakhs of Xinjiang (1962), during which 60,000 refugees fled to the Soviet Union, the riots in the town of Baren (April 5, 1990) in that killed 40 people, the disturbance of Gulja (February 5, 1997) which resulted in at least nine dead and bomb buses Urumqi (February 25, 1997), with 9 dead and 68 wounded.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, Beijing has intensified repression. With U.S. support, China achieved a Uighur movement, the Islamic Party of East Turkistan "was included in the list of terrorist organizations linked to Al Qaeda.
On August 4, 2008 killed at least 16 people in Kashgar, allegedly at the hands of separatist groups, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
