Geopolitics and Power Competition

The historical process of Altay’s being incorporated into Xinjiang in the early years of the Republic of China shows strong geopolitical characteristics. A complete process of the mergence is composed of such historical events as the War between Khobudo and Altay, Cheng Ke’s administration of Altay District, “Russian chaos” and “Altay mutiny”. Meanwhile, the involvement of power struggles can also be spotted. The initial purpose of the Beijing government to establish Altay District was to safeguard the sovereignty of the northwestern border areas through the mutual support between Xinjiang and Altay; the policy was aimed at containing Xinjiang to prevent it from independence as well. However, this resulted in the mutual impediment and restraint imposed on both Xinjiang and Altay, which grew into a hidden peril and worsened the situation of border defense. Under such a circumstance, the final approval of the Beijing government to incorporate Altay into Xinjiang isn’t an intentional denial of the idea to set up Altay as an independent administrative district in a systematic sense, but a rational alternative based on governance costs. As a result, Altay’s mergence into Xinjiang is not only related to the change of administrative divisions in Altay, but also involves the overall planning of the governance of Xinjiang and the northwest and northern border areas. If it is said that the central government of the Qing Dynasty carried out the “Altay separated from Khobudo” from the perspective of the overall situation of the northwest and the northern borderland governance, highlighting the strategic position of Altay as “the summary of the situation of the west and the north”, then the “Altay’s mergence into Xinjiang” in the early years of the Republic of China shows that the Beijing government had turned to a conservative position and is limited in preserving Altay itself and playing its role of “Xinjiang strategic barrier” effect.