Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's international relations: A part of the New Silk Road or a hotbed of conflict?

Abstract

The article examines the place and role of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China in the economic project of the New Silk Road in the context of China's international relations. The importance of the XUAR for China at the beginning of the XXI century increases due to its economic and geostrategic characteristics. China's economic strategy contributes to its strengthening in the Central Asian region and strengthens its position in comparison with the capabilities of Russia and the United States. For China, this is not only a desire to achieve foreign economic goals, but also an opportunity to reduce the risks of the terrorist threat. Xinjiang is becoming not only a springboard for China's new economic policy in Central Asia, but also a link between the important route of goods, raw materials and investments from the Pacific Ocean to Europe. At the same time, the XUAR is a zone of long-term instability, which is expressed in the development of separatism, terrorism and extremism. The actions of the Chinese authorities are aimed at stabilizing the situation in the autonomous region. But sometimes this is achieved by force and contradicts the ethno-religious traditions of the local population. Thus, XUAR, which is part of the New Silk Road, is characterized not only as a promisingly developing region, but also represents a hotbed of significant risk.