SINKIANG, known also as Chinese Turkestan, is the northwesternmost province of China. Its borders are China's frontiers with the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Republic, and India and the internal frontier with the Tibetan plateau. With an area of some 1,55o,ooo square kilometers, approximately triple that of France, Sinkiang has a population of only about 3,700,oo000-a density of 2.4 to a square kilometer. This low density has suggested to many Chinese economists and officials that part of the surplus population of China proper might be moved to Sinkiang as colonists. The province has been likened to the American West of the past century in respect to agricultural possibilities. But, as we shall see, Sinkiang has only modest resources, and political and social obstacles stand in the way of turning the vast empty province into a populous and prosperous area.' The findings of the Academia Sinica Expedition of 1943, with which the author was affiliated, provide fresh data for examining the possibilities.