
The Yi-ta Incident, 1962
During the “Yi-Ta Incident” (the Yili-Tacheng Incident or Ili-Qoqek Incident) of spring 1962, 60,000 Kazakhs and Uyghurs fled from Xinjiang in China's northwest into the Soviet Union. The incident both revealed and exacerbated tensions between China and the Soviet Union, leading to angry accusations on both sides. In the wake of the incident, China waged a fierce struggle against Soviet "revisionism" within Xinjiang and expelled all Soviet diplomats from the Uyghur Autonomous Region. This collection mostly consists of translated Chinese records from the Foreign Ministry Archives in Beijing (PRC FMA). See also the Digital Archive collection "China and the Soviet Union in Xinjiang, 1934-1949." Image: Mao Zedong greets representatives of various ethnic groups from Xinjiang, "Chairman Mao Is the Red Sun in Our Hearts," Gong Jianxin, 1964.
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March 22, 1962
Cable from Yili District Party Committee, 'Provisions on Making Proper Arrangements for the Livelihoods of People Living in Border Areas'
The District Party Committee of Yili, Xinjiang, distributes regulations on improving the livelihoods of citizens living near the Sino-Soviet border.
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April 25, 1962
Cable from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, 'Representations between China and Soviet Union on the Flight of Ethnic Minority Residents from Xinjiang’s Border Areas to the Soviet Union'
The Foreign Ministry alerts Xu Huang and other officials in Xinjiang as to the status of the talks between Zhang Hanfu and Ambassador Chervonenko.
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April 25, 1962
Cable from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, 'Representations between China and Soviet Union on the Flight of Ethnic Minority Residents from Xinjiang’s Border Area to the Soviet Union'
The Chinese Foreign Ministry alerts Ambassador Liu Xiao to ongoing talks between China and the Soviet Union over the mass flight from Xinjiang.