Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland

Eastern Turkestan, now known as Xinjiang, or the "New Territory," makes up a sixth of China's land mass. Absorbed by the Qing in the 1880s and reconquered by Mao in 1949, this Turkic-Muslim region of China's remote northwest borders on formerly Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Mongolia, and Tibet. Will Xinjiang participate in China's twenty-first century ascendancy, or will nascent Islamic radicalism in Xinjiang expand the orbit of instability in a dangerous part of the world? This comprehensive survey of contemporary Xinjiang is the product of a major collaborative research project begun in 1998. The authors join their fieldwork experience, linguistic skills, and disciplinary expertise to assemble the first multifaceted introduction to Xinjiang. The volume surveys the region's geography; its history of military and political subjection to China; economic, social, and commercial conditions; demography, public health, and ecology; and patterns of adaptation, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.