A Look inside the Real Xinjiang (Part I)
To understand why it is so strategic to China
Introduction
For the wrong reasons, Xinjiang is very much in the news in recent months as a result of the accusations levelled at China regarding its alleged treatment and persecution of the Muslim Uyghur minority race living there, the alleged detention of ‘1 million’ Uyghurs in ‘concentration camps’ and the use of ‘forced labour’ in cotton picking, textile production and solar panels manufacturing in Xinjiang. To many westerners, Xinjiang is a place of many unknowns. Perhaps it is like Afghanistan or Iraq, the region is unstable with terrorists and insurgents present, stirring up trouble in cities and towns everywhere. Probably there are many PLA soldiers on the streets, brought in to suppress and detain the local Uyghurs for no good reasons and imprisoning them in mass numbers. The region grows a lot of cotton and other crops and there are forced labour employed in picking them and in manufacturing the textile and other products.
The Real Xinjiang
The truth is very different. Xinjiang today is peaceful and stable and has been so for the past four years. Bloodshed and terrorists incidents incited by Uyghur separatists elements are things of the past, fortunately. The many races of Xinjiang live in clearly-seen harmony with each other today, Importantly, extreme poverty has been eradicated in the year 2020. It’s capital city Urumqi is a bustling metropolis very similar to the capital cities like Chengdu, Zhengzhou or Wuhan in the other major Chinese provinces. Infrastructure improvements can be seen everywhere — like the rest of China — and you can see real transformation gaining pace as wealth and a better standard of living become available to the residents. There is no convincing evidence to show that there is forced labour being practised…. and definitely no proof of any kind of genocide.
The fertile parts of Xinjiang is very much blessed, a god-given piece of land. Xinjianf Geopolit. whanis very geographically diverse in many ways, as there are several Himalayan-kind of mountain ranges there and their presence is the cause of varying types of distinct weather conditions in the valleys, forests, grasslands lakes and deserts of Xinjiang. Overall, the altitude above sea-level of Xinjiang is not overly high except on the mountain ranges. So it is quite unlike neighbouring Tibet in this respect, where almost everywhere is at a sickness-inducing high altitude.
The pristine beauty of North Xinjiang is legendary, with stunningly beautiful lakes and rivers, wide expanse of lush fertile grasslands, 50-metres tall majestic spruce forests and awe-inspiring snow-capped mountains. Rare and exotic animals and birds abound as they are largely state-protected — truly a nature-photographer‘s paradise. Juxtaposed with these are the enchanting minority races and tribes living there, like the Kazakhs, the Uyghurs, Hui, Mongols, Tibetans etc. with their traditions of unique dressing, tentages of abodes, food, music, religions and festivals. It is almost like a fairyland to the increasing hordes of foreign and local tourists descending there every year, in particular during the peak travel seasons. Northern Xinjiang at its best conjures up a vista of the paradise of Shangri-La in my mind.
It is hard to imagine that it was not so long ago that Urumqi and a few other key towns like Hotan, Yining and Kashgar had been hotbeds of unrests. Violence and deaths occurred periodically during those many turbulent years, as Uighur separatists carry out bombings as well as indiscriminate killings, to try to destabilise the Region, in order to seek independence from the Chinese.
We will examine why is it that to the politicians in US and the west, having peace and stability in a place like Xinjiang is definitely not in their national nor global interest.
Home to the famous Silk Route
The whole of Xinjiang Region is huge — I mean HUGE — being roughly four times the size of Germany and is comparable in size to the country of Iran, with a land area of 1,660,000sq km. The proper name for this region is Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a name that was given only in 1955 by the Communist government in 1955. Xinjiang shares borders with eight countries — 5,600 km of frontier border with Mongolia in the north-east, then Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the west, and then Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the southwest.
In the olden days, the Han empire called this region ‘Xiyu’(西域), meaning the western regions. The Hans established the Protectorate of the Western Region in 200 BC, as the means to control the region, which was becoming then a important and profitable trading route between China and Central Asia and Europe, through what is known as the Silk Route today.
During the subsequent Tang empire, in 640 AD, the Anxi Protectorate was established, for similar objective to control the region. It was conquered by the Mongolian army led by Genzhis Khan in the 13th Century. He established the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty that gave the place the eventual name “Xinjiang” in 1888, meaning “new frontier” and that name has survived till today.
In ancient times, Xinjiang had often been under threats of invasion and occupation by different nomadic tribes from the Mongolian north. There were warlords governing different parts of the region and vicious battles are often fought to keep each other from encroaching on their territories. Historically, during those very early days, Chinese empires and their emperors only pay scant interest to this ‘western region’, due to the vast distance and harsh physical barriers such as mountain ranges and deserts separating their eastern kingdoms from the west. Their own kingdoms in the east were large enough to keep their hands full, to fulfil their ambitions for glory and power.
There was a historical record of a Han envoy Zhang Qian, that was sent by the Han emperor to ‘Xiyu’- the western regions, to seek alliance with a warlord to help jointly defeat a common barbarian enemy known as the XiongNu. His caravan was attacked by them and he was captured by the XiongNu instead and forced to live with them for years in captivity, and eventually married a local girl.
In the end, he made his escape when the captors were off their guard, fulfilled his mission to meet up with the warlord, who however by then did not agree to form an alliance with the Han emperor. The envoy eventually made his long arduous journey back to the Han imperial capital, just himself and with his faithful assistant, to report back to the emperor. His whole western journey took 13 long years, but he was the first to be able to bring back first-hand knowledge of his exploits and how the real west was like to the Han kingdom.
Officially, Xinjiang was liberated by the Chinese in 1949, when People’s Republic of China PRC was established, after the communist PLA army defeated the Nationalist army in the long-fought civil war.
Xinjiang is sparsely populated as a whole. It’s 1,660,000 sq km of land area takes up about one-sixth of China’s total territory. It’s strategic importance to the country cannot be over-emphasised. Xinjiang also borders another strategic region — that of Tibet Autonomous Region, belonging to China — and to the further south is India’s Leh district in Ladakh.
Xinjiang, just like neighbour Tibet, are exotic places that many yearn to visit, because of the mystique they conjure up and the deep fascination many hold about them.
North and South Xinjiang
One way to view Xinjiang is to divide it into two parts — North Xinjiang and South Xinjiang. They are separated by the Tianshan Mountain chain (天山 山脉) that cuts across the middle, transversing from west to east. Tianshan mountain range divides the two major basins — the Junggar Basin and the Tarim Basin.
Some air currents from the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans enter gaps in the north-western parts of Tianshan Mountains to reach North Xinjiang. These air currents vaporise as they rise and turn into rain, watering large parts of the Region. The rain nourishes the land, grass and trees in the valleys and plains, which then grew in abundance, making North Xinjiang a fertile green belt of beautiful spectacular grasslands, stunning lakes and rivers and tall lush forests. It also give rise to the proliferation of human civilisations in these fertile places engaging in crops and agricultural cultivation, pastoring of livestocks, rearing of wild horses, etc., a number of them pursuing a nomadic lifestyle up till today. The local authorities were quick to recognise the tourism potential here and have develop many scenic areas to attract visitors to these places.
Well-known scenic spots and attractions include the famous Sayram Lake at 2000+ metres altitude, the extremely scenic Yili River Valley and surrounding lush grasslands all at below 1000 meters altitude, the famous Kanas River, Gongnaisi River, etc
On the other side, South Xinjiang is blocked by Tianshan Mountains and without much moisture and rain from the oceans, is more arid and dry. The contrast between North and South Xinjiang is pretty stark in climatic differences and diversity of landscape. The discovery of oil deposits in the deserts of South Xinjiang has brought life to the uninhabited places next to the oil fields.
The local saying goes : Northern Xinjiang is well-known for its beautiful scenery, Southern Xinjiang is well-known for its rich cultural flavour. I do not agree entirely with this saying — the first part is definitely true, but as for the second part, you will be able to experience that throughout most corners of Xinjiang, north or south.
The capital of Xinjiang Region is Urumqi. It is located in North Xinjiang and is considered the city that is furthest away from the ocean in this world. It has a population of 3.5million, compared to the population of the whole of Xinjiang of 25.8million.
The National census 2020 shows that Xinjiang has a total population of 25.8million. Out of the 25.8million, the Uyghurs take up 11.6million {45%} , while the Han Chinese take up 10.9million{42.2%}. The rest 3.3million people, or 12.8%, are of other ethnic minorities.
The Duku Highway
About 300 km westwards from Urumqi is a well-known and important highway — the Duku Highway, that cuts through the passes and valleys of the Tianshan Mountains, providing a key link between North and South Xinjiang. It cuts down by half the 1000km distance of the old journey between North and South Xinjiang
The 560km-long highway meanders through passes in the mountains, some as high as 4000metres, exposing the traveler to very different weather conditions and climatic changes at different parts along the way. You will marvel at the dramatic seasonal-type changes that can be experienced in a moment’s notice as you transverse the turns and peaks. Many will suffer bouts of high-altitude sickness, if their bodies are not acclimatised enough for the journey. This highway is only useable during 4 or 5 months of the year, from May to September. This is due to harsh winter conditions and heavy snowfalls that make Dugu Highway practically impassable in the winter months.
Duku Highway was built in the 70’s by China‘s People’s Liberation Force (PLA) soldiers blasting open mountain slopes and digging through tunnels. The soldiers dangled from ropes on mountain sides, carrying bags of explosives, toiling at high altitudes, fighting cold and harsh natural conditions to complete this strategic highway. Over the 9 years it took to complete the construction, 168 PLA soldiers lost their lives on the mountains.
Accessibility of Xinjiang from Outside
Road links into Xinjiang have improved greatly over recent years. At present, there are four access roads into Xinjiang. From Tibet, there is the National Highway G219 linking Lhasa to the western Xinjiang city of Kasghar. Then linking Qinghai to South Xinjiang is the Highway G315. The heaviest volume of traffic is by Highway G30, cutting through Gansu province. Lastly is the new Beijing to Xinjiang Highway G7 that was opened in 2017.
G7 winds through Inner Mongolia and Gansu Provinces, cutting through the Gobi Desert and uninhabited stretches of no-man’s-land, to reach the Xinjiang eastern town of Hami, then onwards to Urumqi.
The Chinese has a deep obsession for building road linkages to connect all corners of the country, even to the most remote towns and villages. Good connectivity and accessibility are key objectives of every provincial authority and political leaders. These are often pre-requisite conditions that must be met in order to achieve the Central government’s target of taking every county and every village in China out of extreme poverty.
In regions like the border-provinces such as Xinjiang and Tibet, they take on added levels of significance and importance, to perform some very critical and strategic roles.
Please click here for Part II
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