AH Challenge & WI: Greater Tibet

[Iori]

Right, so here's the challenge, have British Tibet retain its borders (as seen in the below map) and have it survive into the present day.

Now, as for the What-If, well what would happen with a huge Tibet surviving, would Xinjiang (now connected to China by a relatively thin area of land) remain Chinese or go independent, will China fragment or Unify quickly, basically what will the consequences be?



NOTE:
The Tibet border is overlayed onto the OTL modern world to show where it is, it's not meant to show a lack of butterflies.

[yourworstnightmare]

I can see Xinjiang remain outside Beijing's power too, if China fails to stretch west, not only Tibet would be affected.

[Iori]

Indeed, I wonder, if both Super Tibet and Xinjiang remain independent, what of the strip of land between the three, would it become Westernmost China, join Xinjiang or might it become an independent nation itself.

During the Warlord era (which is when the PoD would be) that area was under the control of Shanxi and Xibei San Ma, with the latter being a group of Muslim Hui Chinese, so I could see it becoming independent as a sort of buffer and trade/transit hub between Tibet, Xinjiang, China and Mongolia.