Xinjiang and China's Rise in Central Asia - A History [Paperback]

The recent conflict between indigenous Uyghurs and Han Chinese demonstrates that Xinjiang is a major trouble spot for China, with Uyghur demands for increased autonomy, and where Beijings policy is to more firmly integrate the province within China. This book provides an account of how Chinas evolving integrationist policies in Xinjiang have influenced its foreign policy in Central Asia since the establishment of the Peoples Republic in 1949, and how the policy of integration is related to Chinas concern for security and its pursuit of increased power and influence in Central Asia.

The book traces the development of Xinjiang - from the collapse of the Qing empire in the early twentieth century to the present  and argues that there is a largely complementary relationship between Chinas Xinjiang, Central Asia and grand strategy-derived interests. This pattern of interests informs and shapes Chinas diplomacy in Central Asia and its approach to the governance of Xinjiang. Michael E. Clarke shows how Chinas concerns and policies, although pursued with vigour in recent decades, are of long-standing, and how domestic problems and policies in Xinjiang have for a long time been closely bound up with wider international relations issues.

1. China and the Integration of Xinjiang: The History of a Permanent Provocation  2. Xinjiang from the Qing Conquest to the Republic of China, 1760-1949  3. Completing the Forbears Behest: The Resurgence of the States Integrationist Project under the PRC, 1949-1976  4. Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones: Xinjiang in the Reform Era, 1976-1990  5. Reaffirming Chinese Control in the Wake of Central Asias Transformation, 1991-1995  6. Biding Time and Building Capabilities: Xinjiang and Chinese Foreign Policy in Central Asia, 1996-2001  7. Walking on Three Legs: Balancing Chinas Xinjiang, Central Asia and Grand Strategy Derivedlã•