Pre-20th century The history of the region has become highly politicised, with both Chinese and nationalist Uyghur historians frequently overstating the extent of their groups' respective ties to the region. Although various
Chinese dynasties have at times exerted control over parts of what is now Xinjiang, the region as it exists today came under Chinese rule as a result of the
westward expansion of the
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty, which also saw the annexation of
Mongolia and
Tibet. Early
Qing rule was marked by a "culturally pluralist" approach, with a prohibition on Chinese settlement in the region, and indirect rule through supervised local officials. An increased tax burden placed on the local population due to rebellions elsewhere in China later led to a number of
Hui-led Muslim rebellions. The region was subsequently
recaptured, and was established as an official province in 1884. Near the end of their rule the Qing tried to colonise Xinjiang along with other parts of the imperial frontier. To accomplish this goal they began a policy of
settler colonialism by which
Han Chinese were resettled on the frontier.
20th century After the 1928 assassination of
Yang Zengxin, governor of the semi-autonomous
Kumul Khanate in east Xinjiang under the
Republic of China, he was succeeded by
Jin Shuren. On the death of the Kamul Khan
Maqsud Shah in 1930, Jin abolished the Khanate entirely and took control of the region as
warlord. Corruption, appropriation of land, and the commandeering of grain and livestock by Chinese military forces were all factors which led to the eventual
Kumul Rebellion that established the
First East Turkestan Republic in 1933. In 1934, it was conquered by warlord
Sheng Shicai with the
aid of the Soviet Union. Sheng's leadership was marked by heavy Soviet influence, with him openly offering Xinjiang's valuable natural resources in exchange for Soviet help in crushing revolts, such as in
1937. Although already in use, it was in this period that the term "Uyghur" was first used officially over the generic "Turkic", as part of an effort to "undermine potential broader bases of identity" such as Turkic or Muslim. In 1942, Sheng sought reconciliation with the Republic of China, abandoning the Soviets. In 1944, the
Ili Rebellion led to the
Second East Turkestan Republic. Though direct evidence of Soviet involvement remains circumstantial, and rebel forces were primarily made up of Turkic Muslims with the support of the local population, the new state was dependent on the Soviet Union for trade, arms, and "tacit consent" for its continued existence. When the Communists defeated the Republic of China in the
Chinese Civil War, the Soviets helped the Communist
People's Liberation Army (PLA) recapture it, and it was
annexed by the People's Republic in 1949. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was established in 1955. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, between 60,000 and 200,000 Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other minorities fled China to the USSR, largely as a result of the
Great Leap Forward. As the
Sino-Soviet split deepened, the Soviets initiated an extensive propaganda campaign criticising China, encouraging minority groups to migrate – and later revolt – and attempting to undermine Chinese sovereignty by appealing to separatist tendencies. In 1962, China stopped issuing exit permits for Soviet citizens, as the Soviet consulate had been distributing passports to enable the exodus. A resulting demonstration in
Yining was met with open fire by the PLA, sparking further protests and mass defections. China responded to these developments by relocating non-Han populations away from the border, creating a "buffer zone" which would later be filled with Han farmers and
Bingtuan militia. and Chinese and Soviet forces
clashing on the border in 1969. From the 1950s to the 1970s, a state-orchestrated mass migration into Xinjiang has raised the number of Han from 7% to 40% of the population, exacerbating ethnic tensions. On the other hand, a declining infant-mortality rate, improved medical care and non-applicability of China's one-child policy on minorities have helped the Uyghur population in Xinjiang grow from four million in the 1960s to eight million in 2001. In 1968, the
East Turkestan People's Party was the largest militant Uyghur separatist organisation, and may have received support from the Soviet Union. During the 1970s, the Soviets likely supported the
United Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan (URFET), which issued a series of press releases responsible for creating the impression of an active, organised resistance movement, despite involving only a handful of individuals. Its founder, Yusupbek Mukhlis came to be resented by other Uyghur groups for "exaggerating Uyghur involvement in militant activities", including falsely claiming credit for terrorist attacks. Xinjiang's importance to China increased after the 1979
Soviet assistance to Afghanistan, which led to China's perception of being encircled by the Soviets. China supported the Afghan
mujahideen during the Soviet assistance to the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and broadcast reports of Soviet atrocities committed on Afghan Muslims to Uyghurs to counter Soviet broadcasts to Xinjiang that Soviet Muslim minorities had a better life. Anti-Soviet Chinese radio broadcasts targeted Central Asian ethnic minorities, such as the Kazakhs. The Soviets feared disloyalty by the non-Russian Kazakh, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz in the event of a Chinese invasion of Soviet Central Asia, and Russians were taunted by Central Asians: "Just wait till the Chinese get here, they'll show you what's what!" Chinese authorities viewed Han migrants in Xinjiang as vital to defence against the Soviet Union. China established camps to train the Afghan mujahideen near Kashgar and Hotan, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in small arms, rockets, mines, and anti-tank weapons. During the 1980s, student demonstrations and riots against police action assumed an ethnic aspect, and the April 1990
Barin uprising has been acknowledged as a turning point. The Soviet Union supported Uyghur nationalist propaganda and Uyghur separatist movements against China. Soviet historians claimed that the Uyghur native land was Xinjiang; and Uyghur nationalism was promoted by Soviet versions of history on turcology. This included support of Uyghur historians such as
Tursun Rakhimov, who wrote more historical works supporting Uyghur independence, claiming that Xinjiang was an entity created by China made out of the different parts of East Turkestan and Zungharia. Bellér-Hann describes these Soviet Uyghur historians were waging an "ideological war" against China, emphasising the "national liberation movement" of Uyghurs throughout history. The
CPSU supported the publication of works which glorified the Second East Turkestan Republic and the
Ili Rebellion against China in its anti-China propaganda war.
1990s to 2007 China's "Strike Hard" campaign against crime, beginning in 1996, saw thousands of arrests, as well as executions, and "constant human rights violations", and also marked reduction in religious freedom. These policies, and a feeling of political marginalisation, contributed to the fomentation of groups who carried out numerous guerrilla operations, including sabotage and attacks on police barracks, and acts of terrorism including bomb attacks and assassinations of government officials. A February 1992 Ürümqi bus bombing, attributed to the Shock Brigade of the Islamic Reformist Party, resulted in three deaths. These Uyghurs had jihadist flags and there was evidence of their ties to ETIM. and peaceful by Western media. The demonstrations culminated in the 5 February
Ghulja incident, in which a People's Liberation Army (PLA) crackdown led to at least nine deaths. 25 February
Ürümqi bus bombings killed nine people and injured 68. Responsibility for the attacks was acknowledged by Uyghur exile groups. In Beijing's Xidan district, a bus bomb killed two people on 7 March 1997; Uyghur separatists claimed responsibility for the attack. Uyghur participation in the bombing was dismissed by the Chinese government, and the Turkish-based Organisation for East Turkistan Freedom admitted responsibility for the attack. The situation in Xinjiang quieted until mid-2006, although ethnic tensions remained. In 2005, Uygur author
Nurmemet Yasin was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for inciting separatism following his publication of an allegorical short story, "The Blue Pigeon".
2007–present The number of violent incidents and uprisings increased from the 1990s, peaking in 2014, although their extent is difficult to confirm independently due to restrictions on the access of independent observers and international journalists. According to Vaughan Winterbottom, although the
Turkistan Islamic Party distributes propaganda videos and its
Arabic Islamic Turkistan magazine (documented by Jihadology.net and the
Jamestown Foundation) the Chinese government apparently denied the party's existence; China claimed that there was no terrorist connection to its 2008 bus bombings as the TIP claimed responsibility for the attacks. In 2007, police
raided a suspected TIP
terrorist training camp. The following year, an attempted suicide bombing on a
China Southern Airlines flight was thwarted and the
Kashgar attack resulted in the death of sixteen police officers four days before the beginning of the
Beijing Olympics. During the night of 25–26 June 2009, in the
Shaoguan incident in
Guangdong, two people were killed and 118 injured. The incident reportedly triggered the
July 2009 Ürümqi riots; others were the
September 2009 Xinjiang unrest and the
2010 Aksu bombing, after which 376 people were tried. The July
2011 Hotan attack led to the deaths of 18 people, 14 of whom were attackers. Although the attackers were ethnic Uyghurs, both Han and Uyghurs were victims. That year, six ethnic Uyghur men
unsuccessfully attempted to hijack an aircraft heading to
Ürümqi, a series of
knife and bomb attacks occurred in July and the
Pishan hostage crisis occurred in December. Credit for the attacks was professed by the Turkistan Islamic Party. On 28 February 2012, an
attack in Yecheng left 20 people dead, including seven attackers. On 24 April 2013,
clashes in Bachu occurred between a group of armed men and social workers and police near
Kashgar. The violence left at least 21 people dead, including 15 police and officials. According to a local government official, the clashes broke out after three other officials reported that suspicious men armed with knives were hiding in a house outside Kashgar. Two months later, on 26 June,
riots in Shanshan left 35 dead, including 22 civilians, 11 rioters and 2 police officers. On 28 October 2013, an SUV ploughed through a group of pedestrians near Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, crashed into a stone bridge and caught fire, causing dozens of casualties. Chinese authorities quickly identified the driver as Uyghur. They were identified as Uyghurs by their appearance, and their personal effects indicated that they were separatists. On 1 March, a group of knife-wielding terrorists
attacked the
Kunming Railway Station, killing 31 and injuring 141. China blamed Xinjiang militants for the attack, and over 380 people were arrested in the following crackdown. Following reports of the attack, Uyghur-Chinese actress
Medina Memet urged her fans on Weibo not to equate Uyghurs with terrorism. A captured attacker and three others were charged on 30 June. Three of the suspects were accused of "leading and organising a terror group and intentional homicide", although they did not directly take part since they had been arrested two days earlier. On 12 September, a Chinese court sentenced three people to death and one to life in prison for the attack. The attack was praised by ETIM. On 18 April, a group of 16 Chinese citizens identified as ethnic Uyghurs
engaged in a shootout with Vietnamese border guards after seizing their guns when they were being detained to be returned to China. Five Uyghurs and two Vietnamese guards died in the incident. Ten of the Uyghurs were men, and the rest were women and children. Twelve days later, two attackers
stabbed people before detonating their suicide vests at an Ürümqi train station. Three people, including the attackers, were killed. On 5 June, China sentenced nine people to death for terrorist attacks in Xinjiang. According to the
Xinhua News Agency, on 28 July,
37 civilians were killed by a gang armed with knives and axes in the towns of Elixku and Huangdi in
Shache County and 59 attackers were killed by security forces. Two hundred fifteen attackers were arrested after they stormed a police station and government offices. The agency also reported that 30 police cars were damaged or destroyed and dozens of Uyghur and Han Chinese civilians were killed or injured. The
Uyghur American Association claimed that local Uyghurs had been protesting at the time of the attack. Two days later, the moderate imam of China's largest mosque
was assassinated in Kashgar after morning prayers. On 21 September, Xinhua reported that a
series of bomb blasts killed 50 people in Luntai County, southwest of the regional capital Ürümqi. The dead consisted of six civilians, four police officers and 44 rioters. On 12 October, four Uyghurs armed with knives and explosives attacked a farmers' market in Xinjiang. According to police, 22 people died (including police officers and the attackers). On 29 November, 15 people were killed and 14 injured in a Shache County attack. Eleven of the killed were Uyghur militants. On 18 September 2015, in Aksu, an unidentified group of knife-wielding terrorists
attacked sleeping workers at a coal mine and killed as many as 50 people, before fleeing into the mountains. On 18 November, a 56-day manhunt for the attackers concluded with security forces killing 28 assailants. One member of the gang surrendered to authorities. The
Bangkok bombing is suspected to have been carried out by the Turkish
ultranationalist organisation known as the
Grey Wolves in response to
Thailand's deportation of 100 Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China. A Turkish man was arrested by Thai police in connection with the bombing and bomb-making materials were found in his apartment. Due to the terrorist risk and counterfeiting of passports, Uyghur foreigners in Thailand were placed under surveillance by Defence Minister
Prawit Wongsuwon and Thai police were placed on alert after the arrival of two Turkish Uyghurs. On 30 August 2016, Kyrgyzstan's Chinese embassy was struck by a suicide bombing by a Uyghur, according to Kyrgyz news. The suicide bomber was the only fatality from the attack. The casualties included wounds suffered by Kyrgyz staff members and did not include Chinese. A Kyrgyzstan government agency pointed the finger at
Nusra allied Syrian based Uyghurs. Police killed 4 militants who carried out a bombing on 28 December 2016 in Karakax. On 14 February 2017, three knife wielding attackers killed five people before being killed by police. In the period 2013–2017 there were 330,918 arrests in the province accounting for 7.3% of total arrests in China. This compares to 81,443 arrests in the previous five years. After
Bashar Al-Assad was overthrown on December 7, 2024, the
Turkestan Islamic Party threatened to attack China. The CCP "vow[ed] to 'strike down'" the TIP.