Xinjiang

Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and also known as East Turkistan, was a province and contested region in the northeast of the People's Republic of China, bordering Siberia.

The Uygurs were an ethnic group native to Xinjiang, with a culture and tradition distinct from the majority of ethnic Chinese. Some Uygurs fomented an independence movement to form a separate country, East Turkistan, aided by insurgent groups such as the East Turkistan Independence Movement.

The Chinese government operated prison camps in Xinjiang along the Siberian border. Cheng Zhi threatened to kidnap Howard Bern and hold him in Xinjiang forever if Bern didn't reveal who was responsible for the raid on the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles.