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Empire besieged : the preservation of Chinese rule in Xinjiang, 1884-1971

Abstract

This is an ethnopolitical study of the majority non-Han, Muslim province of Xinjiang in China's far northwest during the transition from empire to nationalizing state. After achieving provincial status in 1884, the final decades of Qing rule witnessed fatally weakened attempts by the central government to integrate Xinjiang into an emerging Han-dominated polity. Following the 1911 revolution, Xinjiang became a Han colony abandoned by the Chinese central government. Over the next four decades, the fate of this Han colony hinged upon the degree to which outside powers could exploit the Han crisis of colonial legitimacy, countered by the ability of the Han ruling class to neutralize, disguise, or otherwise suppress this challenge. This study is a detailed chronological narrative analyzing the nature of this threat as well as the evolving response of Han administrators. It is the first comprehensive study of this period to be conducted entirely from Chinese archival sources in the mainland and Taiwan, both published and unpublished. I find that the Han ruling class, despite numbering less than five percent of the total population and despite conditions of extreme financial hardship, proved adept at countering both internal and external threats to its position. This accomplishment ensured the preservation of Chinese sovereignty in a non-Han land until such time as a strong central government was able to reassert control along the frontier. As a result, the largely peaceful and seamless integration of Xinjiang back into the Chinese state after 1949 stands in stark contrast to the situation in Tibet and Outer Mongolia, the only other majority non-Han lands claimed by the Chinese central government

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