Duggan Flanakin: China’s stolen mineral wealth – a product of genocide

When the fledgling People’s Republic of China in 1949 annexed the central Asian region now known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Chairman Mao’s government gained direct control over the region’s great wealth of mineral resources, thanks to capitulation by the Soviet Union. Indeed, Soviet investments in surveys, extraction and processing equipment, and transport infrastructure had created a blueprint for Chinese investment and economic planning.