Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China

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Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China
Part of the Chinese Civil War

PLA in Ürümqi
Date (1949-10-12) (1949-12-22)October 12 – December 22, 1949
(2 months, 1 week and 3 days)
Location
Xinjiang
Territorial
changes		 Xinjiang is incorporated into the People's Republic of China
Belligerents

People's Republic of China

Republic of China

Three Districts Economic Commission (former

East Turkestan Republic
)

  • Ili National Army
    (former East Turkestan National Army)
Commanders and leaders
Strength
80,000[1] 100,000[1] 40,000
Part of a series on the
History of Xinjiang
Ancient period
Medieval and early modern period
Modern period

The incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China, known in Chinese historiography as the Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang, was the takeover of Xinjiang by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the waning days of the Chinese Civil War. At the time, Xinjiang was divided into ten districts. The Republic of China controlled seven districts and governed them as Xinjiang Province, while the other three were governed by the Three Districts Economic Commission which consisted of the former leadership of the Second East Turkestan Republic.[2]

In the summer of 1949, the PLA drove into the

Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang, KMT) and the leadership of the former Second East Turkestan Republic (ETR), a satellite state of the Soviet Union which controlled the "Three Districts" in northern Xinjiang from 1944 to 1946, during the Ili Rebellion. Under the coalition government which ruled Xinjiang from 1946 to 1949, the KMT controlled most of the province while the leaders of the former ETR retained autonomy in the Three Districts. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed on October 1, 1949, and PLA general Wang Zhen was tasked by his superior Peng Dehuai
with taking Xinjiang. In the fall of 1949, the CCP reached separate agreements with the political leadership of the KMT and the Three Districts.

The CCP persuaded the KMT provincial and military leadership to surrender. The Soviet Union induced the leaders of the former ETR to accede to the CCP. In August 1949,

Ili National Army
(formerly the East Turkestan National Army) into the PLA. Most of the remaining former ETR leadership accepted the absorption of the autonomous Three Districts into the PRC. They subsequently joined the surrendered KMT officials in taking senior positions in the PRC government.

The PRC's takeover of Xinjiang was largely achieved through political means and thus faced little armed resistance. The PLA entered Xinjiang in October 1949 and controlled most of the region by the spring of 1950. Among the major military actors in Xinjiang, only Yulbars Khan, a KMT loyalist, and Osman Batur, a former ETR commander turned KMT supporter, fought against the CCP. They were both defeated by the PLA.[6][7]

Accession of the Three Districts (former East Turkestan Republic)

See also: Ili Rebellion

The Second ETR, initially led by

Beitashan in northeastern Xinjiang. In that conflict, Kazakh leader Osman Batur of the ETR repudiated the ETR and defected to join Nationalist Chinese forces in fighting against Soviet-backed Mongolian forces.[11]

In August 1949, the

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship with Stalin and to retrieve bodies of The Three Districts leaders (their already unrecognisable bodies were delivered from the USSR in April 1950) and when the People's Liberation Army had already secured most of the regions of the former Xinjiang Province.[18]

After the

Ili National Army joined the People's Liberation Army as the Xinjiang 5th Army Corps
, which underwent reforms before being eventually disbanded.

Accession of the KMT in Xinjiang

The first sentimental group sent by the central government of PRC to Xinjiang.

On 25 September, Tao Zhiyue and Burhan Shahidi, the KMT's military general and political leader in Dihua, respectively, announced the formal surrender of Nationalist forces in Xinjiang to the CCP. The next day, 100,000

Isa Yusuf Alptekin fled to Turkey. Masud Sabri
was arrested by the CCP and died in prison in 1952.

The only organized resistance the PLA encountered was from Osman Batur's Kazak militia and from

Xibe, Daur, Manchu people), thus replacing the Xinjiang Province
(1884–1955).

Legacy of the ETR

In the People's Republic of China, the five ETR leaders who perished in the 1949 plane crash are remembered as heroes in the struggle against the Nationalist regime.[24] Their remains were returned to China in April 1950 and later reburied in a heroes' memorial cemetery in Yining.[24] The cemetery has a stele with calligraphy by Mao Zedong, praising the heroes for their contributions to the Chinese people's revolution.[24]

The East Turkistan Government in Exile views Xinjiang's governance by the People's Republic of China as an "illegal military occupation".[25][26][27][28]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Ali Khan, Waqas. "THE UYGHUR INSURGENCY IN XINJIANG: THE SUCCESS POTENTIAL" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  2. ^ Wang 2020, p. 275: "Ahmatjan Kasimi and other representatives of the Ili, Tarbagatay, and Altay districts who opposed Sabri's succession as provincial governor left Urumqi in August 1947 and returned to Ghulja to form their own political organization known as the 'Three Districts Economic Commission,' which sought to autonomously govern the Three Districts region; this marked the collapse of the Xinjiang Province Coalition Government."
  3. ^ Linda Benson, Ingvar Svanberg: China's Last Nomads: History and Culture of China's Kazaks: History and Culture of China's Kazaks, Routledge, 16.09.2016, 278 pages, page 115, Google Books.
  4. ^ Nick Holdstock: China's Forgotten People: Xinjiang, Terror and the Chinese State, Bloomsbury Publishing, 13.06.2019, 288 pages, page 57, Google Books.
  5. ^ David Eimer: The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China, A&C Black, 14.08.2014, 336 pages, page 56, Google Books.
  6. ^ Starr 2004: 86
  7. ^ "Sinkiang and Sino-Soviet Relations" (PDF). Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  8. ^ a b Dickens, Mark (1 January 1990), The Soviets In Xinjiang, archived from the original on 11 October 2017 – via www.academia.edu
  9. ^ Benson 1990:63, 70
  10. ^ Benson 1990:84, 101
  11. ^ Benson 1990:123-27
  12. ^ (Chinese) "历史资料：新疆和平解放" Archived 7 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 8 November 2010
  13. Aviation Safety Network
    . Retrieved on 22 January 2016.
  14. ^ Donald H. McMillen, Chinese Communist Power and Policy in Xinjiang, 1949–1977 (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1979), p. 30.
  15. Aviation Safety Network
    . Retrieved on 22 January 2016.
  16. ^ Allen S. Whiting and General Sheng Shih-ts'ai " Sinkiang: Pawn or Pivot? " Michigan State University Press, 1958, East Lansing, Michigan, page 143
  17. ^ Starr 2004: 86
  18. ^ "Accueil | Sciences Po CERI". sciencespo.fr (in French). Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  19. ^ A brief introduction of Uyghur history Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine Birkbeck, University of London
  20. ^ The quest for an eighth Turkic nation Archived 13 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine Taipei Times
  21. ISBN 978-1-62040-347-1
    .
  22. ISBN 978-0-7656-3192-3
    .
  23. ^ "Sinkiang and Sino-Soviet Relations" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  24. ^ a b c (Chinese) "三区革命烈士陵园（三区革命历史纪念馆）：伊宁市” 人民网 Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine 18 October 2008
  25. ^ Buckton, Mark (24 February 2021). "Taiwan Exclusive: TTT Speaks To Prime Minister Salih Hudayar Of East Turkistan (Xinjiang)". The Taiwan Times. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  26. ^ "Written evidence submitted by East Turkistan Government in Exile (XIN0078)". UK Parliament. East Turkistan Government in Exile. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  27. ^ "East Turkistan Overview Brief" (PDF). Our Commons Canada. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  28. ^ CTN News (29 October 2020). "US Senate Declares China Committing Genocide on Uyghur Muslims". Chiang Rai Times. Retrieved 20 March 2021.

Sources

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