New frontier capitalism in China and the power to name: regional territorialization, petroleum development, and the concurrence of US-PRC relations at September 11th

Contested representations of historical geography in China periodically reproduce in the public sphere when international documentation contrasts with the PRC's official versions of history and territory. In theoretical geography such representations can appear as unique moments of descriptive fervor, yet the power to name is one among general powers of state territorial administration in contemporary China. This analysis opens up a window on the power to name through the conjuncture of the war on terror after September 11(th) and the development of petroleum resources in China's northwest. It adopts a multi-scaled comparative analysis to examine how the convergence of US-PRC interests contributed to reframing the northwest frontier as a transboundary zone of geopolitical security interests. The argumentation proposes that the process of peripheralization of a once remote region has supported development of a frontier for energy resources extraction while contributing to intensified state territorialization in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.