Photo: Screenshot of the website of Chinese Embassy in the UK

Never in Chinese history has Xinjiang been referred to as "East Turkestan," and there has never been any state known by that name, said the Chinese Embassy in the UK on Tuesday, refuting a report by The Guardian alleging that "East Turkestan" once "existed" in the modern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"This is a distortion and negation of Xinjiang's history, which seriously misleads readers and damages your reputation. The Chinese Embassy in the UK is gravely concerned and strongly opposed to this," said the embassy spokesperson in a letter to The Guardian. 

In a report published by The Guardian on February 22, the "East Turkestan Republic" was described as having "existed on the territory of the modern Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region from 1933 to 1949" and "was occupied by China in 1949." 

The embassy stressed that Xinjiang has never been "East Turkestan" according to history, which the embassy amply elaborated on in the letter.

The Turks, who were nomads originated in the Altai Mountains in the middle of the 6th century and dissolved in the late 8th century, mixed with local tribes during their migration to Central and West Asia, but these newly formed peoples were fundamentally different to the ancient Turks, it said. 

With the spread of "Pan-Turkism" and "Pan-Islamism" into Xinjiang at the turn of the 20th century, the separatists inside and outside China politicized the geographical concept of "Turkestan" and manipulated its meaning, inciting people who spoke Turkic languages and believed in Islam to join in creating a theocratic state of "East Turkestan", it noted. 

"The advocacy of this so-called state has become a political tool and program for separatists and anti-China forces attempting to split China," it stressed.

The embassy urged The Guardian to report on Xinjiang objectively and in a balanced manner, respect the history and facts, and not provide a platform for separatist forces.