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As one of the pioneer palaeontologists, Professor Zhuoting Liao has contributed his lifetime to promoting palaeontological and stratigraphical research in China for 60 years, and he passed away in the field excursion in South China on June 20, 2020. In his palaeontological career, Liao has worked on Late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic palaeontology and stratigraphy of almost all regions across China, and his interests have also extended to the Permian–Triassic (P‐Tr) boundary and mass extinction. He has worked on palaeontology, palaeobiogeography, biostratigraphy, tectonostratigraphy, and their implications in mineral and oil‐gas industries. Liao has established 22 new genera and 172 new species of brachiopods, and, together with his colleagues, proposed 11 new genera and 25 new species of echinoderms. He dedicated his lifetime to work on Late Palaeozoic palaeontology and stratigraphy of the previously remote and tectonically complex Xinjiang and adjacent regions, north‐west China, and established integrated stratigraphical frameworks for the Carboniferous to Permian strata, providing fundamental basis for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration in the poorly understood Central Asian terranes. In addition, he has mentored many young palaeontologists and stratigraphers in various ways. This volume assembles 30 papers addressing the Late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic palaeontology and stratigraphy of China and adjacent regions, which pays tribute to the achievement of Professor Zhuoting Liao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the ways in which Islamophobia, as a growing transnational phenomenon, embraces and engenders structural violence against Muslims in the context of China. How have expressions of anti-Muslim racism become part and parcel of anti-terror strategies in the context of the Global War on Terror (GWOT)? And in what ways has Islamophobia been increasingly embedded within the context of the everyday, especially with regards to exclusionary policies? This paper examines this contemporary issue with attention to historical processes, while remaining cognizant of broader global trends of increasingly accepted religious persecution and racism. In a post-9/11 hyper-securitized world, the Uyghurs' religious Muslim identity became the target of the government's campaign against terrorism. With antiterror policies so loosely defined, Islam--often synonymous with terrorism and difference--and those who visibly practice it became convenient marks of increased surveillance, suppression, detention, and even torture/death, all officially under the guise of the elusive war on terror and for the purpose of state security. In China, Islamophobia has effectively been state-sanctioned, legislated, and securitized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The name "flax" is commonly used in various historical records of ancient China, and there have been continuous debates about the specific meaning of "flax". The "flax theorists" believe that due to climate characteristics, sesame cannot be introduced and cultivated in the northwest region of China, so "flax" inevitably refers to flax with better cold resistance. This paper maintains that the term "flax" in historical literature refers to sesame rather than flax. Meanwhile, archaeological achievements in the northwest region of China indicate that sesame may have spread to Xinjiang, China through Central Asia during the pre-Qin period, and have been active in the social and economic life of the northwest region for a long time since then. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Beiijing's handling of the Xinjiang and Uyghur issues at the domestic, regional and international levels is characterised by a number of contradictions. Domestically, the July 2009 unrest suggests that China's longstanding approach to Xinjiang is at risk of failure due to the contradictions inherent in the logic that underpins Beijing's strategy. Regionally, Beijing faces a contradiction between its growing influence on the governments of Central Asia and the ambivalent attitude of Central Asian publics towards China. Internationally, the major implication of the July unrest has been to signal the internationalisation of the Uyghur issue whereby it has become a significant irritant in Beijing's relations with a number of major Western states, including the USA and Australia. It has been Beijing's own approach to Xinjiang domestically and its handling of the Uyghur issue in its diplomacy that has contributed to the internationalisation of the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological visibility of the production and consumption of gold and silver ornaments increased substantially during the Iron Age. A large number of precious metalworks rendered with distinctive 'animal style' motifs have been recovered from elite tombs in north‐west China, and have attracted great interest when investigating the dynamics of exchange, mobility and transcultural encounters in Eurasian antiquity. However, little scientific research has been undertaken to examine the manufacturing techniques and metal composition of such 'animal style' artefacts found in north‐west China and its neighbouring areas in a broader Eurasian context. Using multiple non‐invasive analytical methods, we conducted a detailed scientific analysis of two groups of precious metals excavated from Dongheigou Tomb 12 (fourth–second centuries bce) and Xigou Tomb 1 (third–second centuries bce) in present‐day Balikun county, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The results suggest that mould‐pressing technology was employed for the production of the 'animal style' appliqués found in these two tombs. The current analysis provides a definitive explanation for the traces of superficial crafting through their specific microstructure and the tool marks of manufacturing, and will thus be of significant interest for further research concerning the metallurgic knowledge and technological practice of precious metalworking industry in north‐west China and Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural enemies that impact pest populations must be understood in order to build integrated pest control strategies and to understand the most important aspects affecting pest dynamics. Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) Bunge is an important perennial plant species extensively used in sand stabilization and wind prevention in arid areas. This study aimed to determine the main defoliators that damage H. ammodendron and the parasitoid complex associated with them. Twelve species of defoliators were found in Northern Xinjiang, and Teia dubia (Tauscher) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), Scrobipalpa sp. (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), and Eucharia festiva Hüfnagel (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) were the dominant pests. T. dubia is the predominant defoliator with three generations a year. Northwest China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean region are potentially suitable habitats for T. dubia in the world, while Xinjiang is the primary distribution area in China. Parasitoids belonging to seven species and four families were reared from the larvae of T. dubia, they were all endoparasitoids and koinobiont. Cotesia sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is the dominant parasitoid and prefer to parasitic in the 3rd–5th instar larvae. The present study provides the basis for understanding the species composition and natural enemies of lepidopteran defoliators. It will be an effective tool for the integrated pest management programs of H. ammodendron forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the role of Xinjiang in the foreign policy of China toward Central Asia. Topics include the important role of China in the Central Asian region following the collapse of the Soviet Union, how Xinjiang influences China's foreign policy in Central Asia, and the rapid development of Xinjiang due to Central Asian states' share in the foreign trade volume in the province.

Since September 11, 2001, and the subsequent U.S. politico-military penetration of Central Asia there has been much speculation regarding China's perceived strategic "defeat" in that region, which is said to have compromised China's long-term plans regarding the integration of Xinjiang. This paper, however, will argue that the strategic implications of the U.S. penetration of Central Asia have in fact resulted in the re-invigoration and reinforcement of China's goal and instruments of integration in Xinjiang. This dynamic has been expressed within Xinjiang, in the form of the strengthening of the major instruments of internal control and development, and externally in the form of China's foreign policy calculus in the context of its relations with the states of Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been quite successful in developing its relations with Central Asian states and expanding its influence in the region since the 1990s. Most analysts contribute the success to the strategy and policy of China’s national central government. This observation certainly has a lot of truth, but at the same time we should not neglect or downplay the role that the local government in Xinjiang has played in cementing China–Central Asian ties. Xinjiang has functioned as an indispensable actor in China’s look-west and act-west policies towards Central Asia and beyond. With Chinese foreign policy elites increasingly interested in using the act-west policy as part of their counter-hedging strategy in Asia, Xinjiang appears to enjoy many more opportunities and play an even more significant role in China’s relations with countries in its western flank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Changes in the vegetation and climate of the westerly-dominated areas in Central Asia during the Holocene were interpreted using pollen-assemblages and charcoal data from a 300-cm-long sediment core of the Sayram Lake, northern Xinjiang. Accele-rator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating methods were applied to bulk organic matter of the samples. Artemisia spp./Chenopodiaceae ratios and results from principal component analysis were used to infer that the lake basin was dominated by desert vegetation before ca. 9.6 cal. ka BP, which suggests a warm and dry climate in the early Holocene. Desert steppe/steppe expanded during 9.6-5.5 cal. ka BP, indicating a remarkable increase both in the precipitation and temperature during the mid-Holocene. Desert vegetation dominated between 6.5 and 5.5 cal. ka BP, marking an extreme warmer and drier interval. The steppe/meadow steppe recovered, and temperatures decreased from 5.5 cal. ka BP in the late Holocene, as indicated by the increased abundance of Artemisia and the development of meadows. Holocene temperatures and moisture variations in the Sayram Lake areas were similar to those of adjacent areas. This consistency implies that solar radiation was the main driving factor for regional temperature changes, and that the effect of temperature variations was significant on regional changes in humidity. The evolution of climate and environment in the Sayram Lake areas, which were characterized as dry in the early Holocene and relatively humid in the middle-late Holocene, are clearly different from those in monsoonal areas. Dry conditions in the early Holocene in the Sayram Lake areas were closely related to decreased water vapor advection. These conditions were a result of reduced westerly wind speeds and less evaporation upstream, which in turn were caused by seasonal changes in solar radiation superimposed by strong evaporation following warming and drying local climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia is not a Westphalian system. Transnational politics, in which political communities are subdivided by nominally sovereign boundaries, are just as common in Asia as international politics. This non-Westphalianism is also a persistent feature of Asian security, as subnational, transnational, and international conflicts are embedded in each other. This article examines China's security relations with Central Asia in terms of these features, beginning with a discussion of the developmental and ethno-national politics of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Chinese state has advanced a program of economic modernization and intensive security campaigns to eradicate what it terms the "three evils" of splittism, terrorism, and extremism and to promote a common political identity for modern China. But this campaign has resulted in a segregated Xinjiang in which Uyghurs still look to a transnational community outside of China as an alternative to political assimilation. The second part of the article examines the interaction between transnational and international security in Central Asia, and China's promotion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as its preferred mechanism for managing this relationship. The authors identify three aims of the SCO - repressing transnational radicalism; stabilizing regional regimes and their foreign policy orientations; and checking U.S. influence - but argue that these are more restraints on the political options of others than a means to expand China's own options. The fact that the problems of China's transnational regions and the future of SCO remain unresolved leads the authors to conclude that an ascendant China faces an uncertain future in the fluid environment of Central Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]