SINKIANG, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — It comprises the homonymous civil province, also known as Chinese Turkestan or Eastern Turkestan, in northwestern China.
It was erected as a mission *sui iuris* on 14 February 1930, detached from the territory Lanchow (v.) and, like the mother mission, entrusted to the religious of the Society of the Divine Word; on 21 May 1937 it was elevated to an Apostolic Prefecture.
It has an area of 1,828,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a population of over 4,000,000 inhabitants, there were 471 Catholics and 16 catechumens. Besides the Apostolic Prefect, there were 11 foreign priests and 2 Chinese priests, 2 lay brothers and 2 Chinese sisters. Among its works was a primary school.
ASIA (v.), in the 6th century, the Nestorian heretics reached the province and founded an archiepiscopal see at Kashgar. Also from Sian, at the beginning of the 19th century, a Chinese priest periodically visited, with a journey of 6,000 km round trip, the 300 faithful who formed the community of Korree, where in 1860 the Rev. Thomas Chang was assigned. He followed the Catholics into their exile at Kuldja after the capture of Korree by Muslims (1864). In the general massacre carried out by the rulers, about forty Christians survived, who did not yield even to the enticements of the popes who entered Sinkiang after the Russian occupation (1871); in 1922 the Verbites succeeded the Scheut missionaries in the administration of the Apostolic Vicariate of Kansu, now Lanchow.