The Kazakhs had settled in the Dzungaria area of Xinjiang after the Dzungar genocide by the Manchus wiped out most of the native Dzungar Oirats and fleeing from Soviet engineered famines against the Kazakhs like the Kazakh famine of 1919–1922 and Kazakhstan famine of 1932–1933. The Kazakhs had defected to the Republic of China and fought against the Soviet Communist backed Uyghurs in the Ili Rebellion.