The armed police called for reinforcements from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) the next day, following two failed attempts at negotiations and a prisoner exchange.

Analysts and scholars generally consider the Barin uprising to be a watershed moment in Xinjiang's history which caused the Chinese government to tighten its policies in the region.

[1] The Chinese government's official name for the conflict is the "Counter-revolutionary armed riot in Barin Township, Akto County" (阿克陶县巴仁乡反革命武装暴乱).

[7] Meanwhile, a Chinese government editorial published in 2002 attributes the uprising to the "East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP)",[a] a clandestine organisation supposedly founded in Barin in 1989.

The editorial claims that the ETIP held four major planning meetings in the months prior to the uprising, one of which was devoted to the procurement of supplies, including weapons and uniforms.

[9] The ETIP allegedly ran a training camp for militants toward the end of March 1990, and raised funds for weapons and vehicles by robbing local Bingtuan.

[8] The editorial, as well as an internal report written by the Chinese government immediately after the uprising, identified Zeydun Yusup as the ETIP's leader.

[8][1] The Chinese government claims that Yusup and the ETIP wanted to seize Barin to set up a militant stronghold from which they could establish a third East Turkistan Republic.

[8] The following timeline is based on an internal report by the Chinese government written immediately after the uprising and subsequently leaked to the foreign press.

A detachment of 130 armed police was deployed to quell the unrest; it was immediately ambushed by the militants upon arriving in the vicinity of Barin.

[9] The uprising shocked regional Chinese Communist Party officials in Xinjiang, who were surprised at the organisation, scale, and openly political nature of the initial protest.

[11] In an unprecedented move, Chinese authorities arrested 7,900 people, labelled "ethnic splittists" and "counter-revolutionaries", from April to July 1990.

[3] On 5 April 2021, the 31st anniversary of the Barin uprising, Turkish politicians Meral Akşener (leader of the Good Party) and Mansur Yavaş (mayor of Ankara) released statements commemorating the Uyghurs killed in the conflict.