6. Soviet Military Against Chinese Soldiers, Xinjiang, 1934-1937: Unknown Casualties
In 1934, 7000 Soviet troops, armed with mustard gas, invaded China in an attempt to take over Xinjiang. Xinjiang is a province in China that is densely populated with Chinese Muslims.
To subdue a rebellion there and attempt to bring Xinjiang into the Soviet bloc, the Soviet military used chemical weapons, especially mustard gas, against Chinese soldiers. The Chinese government hid what was going on, declaring it “Japanese propaganda,” to try to avoid an international incident and to secure flows of Soviet weapons to aid in the war against Japan in Manchuria. We don’t know how many people died.
