Yi–Ta incident

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The Yi–Ta incident (Chinese: 伊塔事件) was a mass exodus of people from China to the Soviet Union in early 1962. At least 60,000 Chinese citizens migrated to the Soviet Union by crossing the border between the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic from March to May 1962. The migrants were predominantly ethnic Kazakhs, but many Kyrgyz, Tatars, Uyghurs, and Uzbeks also left, driven by deteriorating living conditions in Xinjiang, the Chinese government's perceived bias towards the Han Chinese, and claims of Soviet citizenship being granted to migrants of "Soviet nationalities". The exodus occurred amid a climate of panic and uncertainty surrounding the Sino–Soviet split, with rumours spreading among Xinjiang's populace that, among other things, the Sino–Soviet border would soon be closed and a war would erupt between the two countries. The exodus ended when the Chinese authorities pressured their Soviet counterparts to close the border, prompting protests in Yining, the then de facto political and economic centre of Xinjiang. The exodus came to be known as the "Yi–Ta incident" because it took place in Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture and Tacheng Prefecture. The Chinese government describes the protests in Yining, which turned violent, as the "29 May counter-revolutionary riots" (Chinese: 5·29反革命暴乱事件).