Kashgar, the ancient entrepot along the Silk Road bordering Central Asia, is being rebooted for the 21st century. Designated a Special Economic Zone this cultural heart of the Uighur minority is being torn asunder; skyscrapers and factories replacing bazaars and old adobe dwellings. Combined with mass Han Chinese migration the changes have sparked simmering tensions and bloodshed in the region. Chambers looks at Kashgar's past, present and future, and how China is shifting its focus west and looking to engage Central and Southern Asia.

He traces how Kashgar has gone from a remote city not much thought about to one of rising importance bringing about the need to obliterate it and its Uighur culture and heritage and turn it into a trading post controlled by the Xinjiang Labour Corps and little else. Beijing's dogged focus on Special Economic Zones always wins through while geopolitically China is moving to yoke vast territories in Central and South Asia to its economy.