Topic summary
Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China
The incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China, known in Chinese historiography as the Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang (Chinese: 新疆和平解放), 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 (ROC) controlled seven districts and governed them as Xinjiang Province, while the other three (Ili, Tarbagatay, and Altay) were governed by the Three Districts Economic Commission which consisted of the former leadership of the Soviet-backed Second East Turkestan Republic.
In the summer of 1949, the PLA drove into the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province and pressed toward Xinjiang. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was proclaimed on 1 October 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 ROC and the Three Districts.
The CCP persuaded the ROC provincial and military leadership to surrender. The Soviet Union induced the leaders of the Three Districts to accede to the CCP. In August 1949, Ehmetjan Qasimi and his delegation of four other top ETR leaders died in a plane crash en route to Beijing to attend the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the CCP's apex united front conference. In December, the PRC government incorporated the Ili National Army (formerly the East Turkestan National Army) into the PLA. Most of the remaining Three Districts leadership accepted the absorption of the autonomous Three Districts into the PRC. They subsequently joined the surrendered ROC 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, an ROC loyalist, and Osman Batur, a former ETR commander turned ROC supporter, fought against the CCP. They were both defeated by the PLA.