The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is a provincial-level autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China (PRC), with its capital at Ürümqi. It is China's largest provincial division by area, covering over 1.6 million square kilometers, and is strategically located, bordering eight countries including India and Pakistan.
The region was formally established as a province and renamed Xinjiang ("New Frontier") in 1884 by the Qing dynasty. Following the founding of the PRC, the XUAR was officially established on October 1, 1955, to implement the policy of ethnic regional autonomy for the Uyghur people, a Turkic, predominantly Muslim ethnic group. The region is a historical crossroads of the Silk Road and is home to a diverse population, with Uyghurs comprising approximately 47 percent and Han Chinese comprising 41 percent of the population today, a significant demographic shift from 1949 when Uyghurs were over 90 percent.
As an autonomous region, the XUAR is theoretically granted self-governance rights, but it operates under the firm leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The central mechanism of governance is framed by national counterterrorism and regional counterextremism laws, which the government uses to combat the "three evils" of "ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and violent terrorism". Since April 2017, the policy has intensified, with reports of the mass detention of over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in "vocational skills education training centers" (internment camps). This connects to the international concept of human rights violations and has led to the US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. A recent change includes the establishment of new counties, such as Cenling (announced March 26, 2026), near the border with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan, a move seen as strengthening border security.