Justin M. Jacob‘s new book proposes that we understand modern China as a national empire, and traces the strategies of difference that have consistently marked Xinjiang as a part thereof. Xinjiang and the Modern Chinese State (University of Washington Press, 2016) guides readers through a history of the institutions and strategies employed in support of late imperial and early Republican rule in Xinjiang. Jacobs explains the imperial repertoires of the Republican period, frames the challenges of Xinjiang officials to negotiate between Russian and Chinese imperial authority in Central Asia, traces the rise of ethnopopulism, and much much more. This will be required reading for anyone interested in China’s past, present, and possible futures.