ABSTRACT
The historical and political analysis of the role frontiers and in more modern times borders in China’s north and north-west have played are noteworthy. The north-western frontier of China, which is otherwise known as Xinjiang, has been important from the geostrategic point of view. It has a population including 47 minority groups, with the Uyghur as the majority. Other factors which have made this region significant include natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, and complex geography and history. Some major issues and events of the region’s early history affect perceptions of Xinjiang today. The prior history of Xinjiang as described by Uyghur and Chinese historians and researchers differs. Although Xinjiang’s Chinese association goes back to more than 2,000 years, the range has stayed impaired or under control of majestic China discontinuously for under five centuries. This region has finally usurped into the Chinese empire under the Qing rulers. Keeping in view the importance of the region, Chinese authorities have devised a policy towards the region which has very substantial impacts on the region as a whole. Against this background, the chapter studies those traditions in China’s north-western frontier which were both sustained and transformed during the late imperial period, while providing a brief overview of the contemporary situation. Since the People’s Republic of China has the tendency to regard its present-day interaction and relationship with its neighbours in the vein of a long and radiant custom, it is pivotal to endeavour a study of these conventions and to find any progressions through time. It also sheds light on the importance of modern border for the rules of China today and is generally to be found in the frontier regions and policies towards the predominately non-Han population in the frontier regions.
