[3] The nominal Xikang province also included in the south the Assam Himalayan region (Arunachal Pradesh) that Tibet had recognised as a part of British India by the 1914 McMahon Line agreement.

[4] The eastern part of the province was inhabited by a number of different ethnic groups, such as Han Chinese, Yi, Qiang people and Tibetan, then known as Chuanbian (川邊), a special administrative region of the Republic of China.

[citation needed] Following the 1905 Batang uprising, Qing China appointed Zhao Erfeng as the Imperial Commissioner for the Sichuan-Yunnan Frontier.

[9] Following the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911, which led to the downfall of the Qing dynasty, the region subdued by Frontier Commissioners was established as the Chuanbian Special Administrative District (川邊特別行政區) by the newly founded Republic of China.

When a negotiated ceasefire failed, Tibetan forces expanded the war, attempting to capture parts of southern Qinghai province.

In March 1932, their force invaded Qinghai but was defeated by the local Hui warlord Ma Bufang in July, who routed the Tibetan army and drove it back to this district.[which?

[citation needed] In 1932 Liu Wenhui in cooperation with the Qinghai army, sent out a brigade to attack the Tibetan troops in Garzê and Xinlong, eventually occupying them, Dêgê and other counties east of the Jinshajiang River.