Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Autonomous region of northwest China, bounded to the north by Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia; to the east by Mongolia and Gansu; to the south by Qinghai and Tibet; and to the west by Jammu and Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; area 1,646,800 sq km/635,800 sq mi (the largest political unit of China); population (2000 est) 19,250,000. The capital is Urumqi. Industries include oil, chemicals, iron, textiles, coal, copper, and tourism. Cereals, cotton, and fruit are grown, and there is animal husbandry.

History
From the 3rd century BC to the 20th century AD Xinjiang was under Chinese control for short periods under the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang (618–907) dynasties. At that time there was a flourishing indigenous culture in the oases of the Tarim Basin, whose inhabitants spoke an Indo-European language and were Buddhist in religion. The oases formed an important link in the trading routes between China and western Asia and Europe, such as the medieval Silk Road, and were the route along which Buddhism reached China. In the 8th century AD the area was conquered by the Mongols and formed part of a succession of central Asian empires until the Qing dynasty re-established Chinese control in the middle of the 18th century. In the late 19th century Russia, having taken over large parts of the northwest of the region, sought to extend its influence into the rest of the area, which China had made into Xinjiang province in 1884. This was opposed by Britain in the ‘Great Game’, the competition between the two countries for influence in the region.

In the Republican period (1911–49), the province was ruled by warlords virtually independent of the central government, and the USSR was the dominant influence in the area. The communist government took control in 1950, established the autonomous region in 1955, and has linked the area more closely to the rest of China.