This is the province formerly transliterated as Sinkiang, correct? The first major trading country west of China on the Old Silk Road?
yes,it was spelled as” Sinkiang” before PRC was founded.
sometimes somebody calls it “Eastern Turkistan” or “Chinese Turkistan”.
But Turkish-speaking people came here just after 500 AD .
Before 500 AD,Han-Chinese had lived here for almost 700 years.
The great Chinese adventurer,Zhang Qian,”found” the “Easter Turkistan” on about 120BC.Then on 60 BC,Chinese Han-empire set up its rule in “Eastern Turkistan”.
On about 790AD,the last Chinese city in “Eastern Turkistan” fell down.But on about 1750,Chinese Manchus-Empire came back and reconquered it.
Red China just succeeded the heritage of Imperial China in 1949.
In fact,so is the Tibet. Tibet was conquered and controled by Chinese Manchus-Empire in 17-18th century gradually.
Sinkiang was known as the East Turkistan Republic, a breakaway from China in the mid-30’s through 1949, when the Chinese Communists steamrolled the corrupt government’s Army...
This actually happened TWICE, with the first being defeated in 1934.
And don’t believe the propoganda, China has had MANY problems with the Muslems in this region over the years, and cracks down HARSHLY whenever they rise up...