China has created a new province in the Xinjiang region near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Afghan border, a move that comes amid ongoing tensions with India over disputed territories, especially in Ladakh.The province, called Sinling, was declared by the government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on March 26 and will be administered by Kashgar Prefecture, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. The new administrative unit is located near the Karakoram mountain range, close to Buk and Afghanistan, and has strategic importance.This is the third province China has established in Xinjiang in just over a year.
India had previously lodged a protest with Beijing over the creation of Hin and Hikang districts, noting that parts of its jurisdiction fall within the union territory of Ladakh.
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Hin District includes a large part of the disputed Aksai Chin Plateau, which India considers part of Ladakh but has been under Chinese control since the 1962 war and remains a major point of contention between the two countries.Kashgar, which will be administered by Sinling, is a historical city located on the ancient Silk Road, and serves as a strategic gateway linking China with South and Central Asia.
It is also the starting point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a project that passes across the border line that India has consistently opposed.While specific details about Sinling’s administrative divisions and boundaries have not been revealed, its proximity to disputed areas and India’s previous objections to similar developments highlight the sensitivities surrounding the administrative changes China is making in the border areas.The move “reflects China’s deeper awareness of the strategic importance of this region,” said Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.“On a broader level, the decision indicates China’s focus on its borderlands,” the agency reported, citing the professor.He noted that the new province is geographically connected to Afghanistan’s narrow Wakhan Corridor, a 74-kilometre-long strip on the Xinjiang border that separates Tajikistan and Buk, highlighting China’s security concerns in the region.Beijing has previously expressed concerns about Uyghur militants from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement using the Wakhan Corridor as a route into Xinjiang from Afghanistan. Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, said the new district represents a push toward stronger local governance.“This helps bolster the government’s stabilization efforts in the border region, which has traditionally been more vulnerable to ethnic unrest and potential infiltration by foreign militants from Central Asia,” she said.
