Xinjiang in the "Reform" Era, 1978-91: The Political and Economic Dynamics of Dengist Integration

Abstract

This paper charts the development of the People`s Republic of China`s (PRC) reevaluation of its strategy of control and development in Xinjiang in the post-Mao era. It argues that the reevaluation and restructuring of the CCP`s socioeconomic priorities after the repudiation of the Maoist line, and the ideological innovations that followed thereafter, produced contradictory dynamics in Xinjiang that reinvigorated the potential for the convergence of internal unrest and external interference by the close of the 1980s, laying the foundation for the intensification of ethnic minority opposition during the 1990s. The emerging strategy toward Xinjiang during this period attempted to utilize the strategic and ”frontier” nature of Xinjiang to strengthen the endeavor of integration, stimulating the beginnings of a number of dynamics both within Xinjiang and the wider Central Asian region that would challenge Chinese power and policy in the final decade of the twentieth century.