Still not convinced that Xinjiang is a colony of China? Let me introduce to you the little-known Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, or XPCC for character limits.

A thread:

The XPCC was founded in the 1950s as basically a civil extension of the army to, in its own words, "open up wasteland and garrison the frontiers" in Xinjiang, which the PRC has occupied since the 1940s.

http://www.xjbt.gov.cn/c/2015-01-16/531255.shtml

An aside: China claims Xinjiang as part of China "for 2000 years", but really even Qing administration regarded it as a foreign land until Qianlong Emperor conquered it and wiped out the native Dzungars from the northern half in the 18th century

Anyway, the XPCC is autonomous of the Xinjiang government. They operate entire cities and all the administration and civil services that goes with it, incl judiciary, police. And it's not exactly small, 12% (almost 3 million people) of the population of Xinjiang is under the XPCC

As an extension of the army, it falls under Beijing's direct control through the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, not the regional government. Nominally it also follows XUAR government regulations too, but more because party-secretary (but not Chairman) gets to office both

Now we've established that they're another administration in Xinjiang and they run cities, how does that make them a colonial organisation? Well, remember how their mission is stated to "open up the wasteland", who do we think is doing the opening up?

You guessed right! The XPCC is almost 90% Han Chinese. In the 50s, it was started with 175k soldiers from other parts of China. Since then it's expanded through their descendants, demobilised soldiers, and others invited by the state (you can't just turn up)

They organise all these settlers military style, assigning them to regiments that then get assigned tracts of land to administer. Since Deng, they've been allowed to also subcontract that labour to locals, who of course have to sell all their produce back to the XPCC

Aside from the traditional agricultural interests, they also cover the other commercial operations cities end up covering, including manufacturing and other business, all independent from the XUAR administration.

They started out with just Shihezi city, near Urumqi, in the 1960s. But since the 2000s they've had even more cities approved, including in previously Uyghur dominant areas near Kashgar and Hotan. They plan to control 30 cities by 2030.

And not just for settlement and economy, the XPCC are also integral to enforcement in Xinjiang. The XPCC has the highest rate of arrests for "Endangering State Security" in all China (237 arrests 2002-2016), higher than much larger provinces and cities (eg. Chongqing, 35 arrests)

Almost all of these arrests were Uyghurs, who account for only 10% of the XPCC's membership. The XPCC was also mobilised in support of the crackdown after the 2009 Urumqi protests, which killed at least hundreds.

To conclude, we have here an almost-military organisation, made up almost entirely of Han settlers, being moved to what it in its own words calls the "wasteland", displacing Uyghurs, with its own authority operated directly from Beijing. A colonial enterprise through and through.

Should also add they literally cite previous imperial settlement practices as precedent for setting up the XPCC, in their own words: