It is remote. But it is strategically significant. In several countries, Muslim secularists are battling Islamic extremists for power. An estimated 200 billion barrels of oil in the Caspian Sea have brought most of the major multinational energy companies to the region. Local resentment at the resettlement of Han Chinese into regions populated mainly by Central Asian Uighurs runs deep.
China has both economic and political-military objectives in the region.
But keeping restive Xinjiang pacified is a task that Beijing has repeatedly failed to accomplish through internal measures alone. China has been assiduous, therefore, in employing sophisticated appeals to international partners, who are willing to suppress anti-Chinese dissent that might also threaten the stability of their secularist regimes. This has made for some stylish diplomacy. That is ironic. The Chinese police can be very brutal.