That's actually not how modern China gained territory. The settlements in Xinjiang were explicitly designed to not step on the traditional Uyghur economic/cultural center of Kashgar. Instead, settlement surrounded Urumqi, a place that used to be a backwater of backwaters (the name meaning "beautiful pasture"). Even today, Kashgar and it's surrounding areas are majority Uyghur (by far), while Urumqi is majority Han.

[–] livus@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

@zerfuffle cherry picking "backwaters" to settle isn't the same as not colonizing at all, nevertheless I wasn't talking about Xinjiang in particular.

Here is a good example of classic settler colonialism by the Chinese.