Xinjiang: China's divide-and-conquer strategy - ucanews.com

A little Chinese history. History DOES repeat. // "Hami and Turfan had already surrendered to the Qing in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in a process similar to China’s acquisition of allies through commercial means today.
Historian Kwangmin Kim wrote: “Perhaps the eastern oases’ alliance with the Qing had to do with the area’s long-term commercial relations with China, which existed at the very least since the 15th century under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Turfan and Hami were the most avid participants in the official trade that was conducted in the Ming capital and some limited venues of frontier markets designated by the Ming, managed under the Chinese framework of the tribute system — the only form of transfrontier commerce with China sanctioned by the Ming government. These long-term commercial relations had gradually drawn the eastern oases under the increasing political influence of the Chinese empire, even before the Qing troops set foot in Xinjiang in the mid-18th century.”'