The idea of a Hui "national homeland" sounds fascinating to me, especially after reading up on Tunganistan and the Panthay Rebellion. I would love to tackle the existence of such a state in a TL, but I'm not entirely sure how and why this state would form, nor in what time period. Hence why I elected to consult the board 
To my credit, I do have some ideas of my own. Sorted in an increasingly unlikely/out there way:
Idea 1: The Panthay Rebellion succeeds, and Du Wenxiu gets to create his Islamic Kingdom of Yunnan (Pingnan Guo). Maybe a more destructive Miao Rebellion (combined with a heavier Taiping rebellion) makes a reconquest of Yunnan difficult if not impractical for the Qing, who decide to simply give up. Du asked the British for help, so maybe this happens too, though I'm not sure why the Britons would help Du fight the Qing. Even in the best case for Du militarily there are still many problems with this:
Idea 2: A Russo-Chinese War breaks out roughly concurrently with the Dungan Revolt, leading to Russia seizing Northwestern China. Two issues: firstly, the area would probably be eaten up by the Russians instead of being a buffer state, and secondly, Russia supported the Qing during the Dungan Revolt. I wouldn't call it impossible though: a Russian general, Gerasim Kolpakovsky, actually did want to occupy Xinjiang and annex it into Russia. But I have no idea how to make the tsar decide attacking China is better than helping them.
Idea 3: The Kuomintang win the Chinese Civil War early (due to destroying the communists in 1934), but the Soviets enter the country and create a Chinese Soviet Republic in the northwest. Issue is, even though there are many Hui in the region, they aren't the majority, so a Chinese SSR or puppet state wouldn't technically be a Hui or Dungan nation-state.
Idea 4: Idea 2 but the Chinese Soviet republic only covers Ningxia. Modern-day Ningxia has 38% Hui, which is quite a lot, though probably still not enough for it to be a "Hui state", so this one runs into the same problem.
Idea 5: The Soviets carve a Dungan (A)SSR out of Dungan-majority areas in Kyrgyzstan. Why they do this beats me, but somehow they just do and the republic becomes independent in 1991.
Idea 6: The Taiping Rebellion succeeds; relations with the Hui and Pingnan Guo cool down fairly quickly as the Taiping, in their zeal and fundamentalism, try to stamp out Islam in favour of God Worshipping, leading to heavy persecution of Muslims. After the Taiping lose a big ass war (WWII or otherwise), a Hui homeland is set up a la Pakistan.
Idea 7: Same as Idea 6 but with an Axis Kuomintang instead that somehow starts to despise the Hui.
Idea 8: Somehow, OTL!Tunganistan remains a thing. Most likely completely impossible no matter what.
The recurring issue with many of these attempts is that whatever state we create for the Hui or Dungans would not actually have a Hui/Dungan majority. This could be resolved with population transfers in the cases of idea 1, 6 and 7, but that might not always work. The most workable idea of them all really does seem to be the Panthay Rebellion, and even then, the Pingnan kingdom is really just fucked by its location and demographics (it would've really, really helped if Pingnan was somewhere in Northwestern China instead of in the very south). Idea 6 is nice but I'd prefer something that avoids the Taiping coming to power.
So with all that said ... uhh, now what? I'm very stumped admittedly. Even the best ideas I could cook up are full of holes and problems. So with that in mind, my question is; how can a Hui nation-state come into being, and when?
Looking for something that matches the following:
To my credit, I do have some ideas of my own. Sorted in an increasingly unlikely/out there way:
Idea 1: The Panthay Rebellion succeeds, and Du Wenxiu gets to create his Islamic Kingdom of Yunnan (Pingnan Guo). Maybe a more destructive Miao Rebellion (combined with a heavier Taiping rebellion) makes a reconquest of Yunnan difficult if not impractical for the Qing, who decide to simply give up. Du asked the British for help, so maybe this happens too, though I'm not sure why the Britons would help Du fight the Qing. Even in the best case for Du militarily there are still many problems with this:
- Hui were a small minority in Yunnan IIRC, especially at the time;
- Most Hui lived and still live in Northwest China (Ningxia, Qinghai and Gansu), which is all the way at the other side of the country;
- Du created an explicitly Islamic state in the region (even though he co-opted non-Muslims) and filled his bureaucracy with Muslims, leading to a small Muslim elite lording over many, many, many, many non-Muslims;
- The Qing could always come back later for Round II when they've got their act together.
Idea 2: A Russo-Chinese War breaks out roughly concurrently with the Dungan Revolt, leading to Russia seizing Northwestern China. Two issues: firstly, the area would probably be eaten up by the Russians instead of being a buffer state, and secondly, Russia supported the Qing during the Dungan Revolt. I wouldn't call it impossible though: a Russian general, Gerasim Kolpakovsky, actually did want to occupy Xinjiang and annex it into Russia. But I have no idea how to make the tsar decide attacking China is better than helping them.
Idea 3: The Kuomintang win the Chinese Civil War early (due to destroying the communists in 1934), but the Soviets enter the country and create a Chinese Soviet Republic in the northwest. Issue is, even though there are many Hui in the region, they aren't the majority, so a Chinese SSR or puppet state wouldn't technically be a Hui or Dungan nation-state.
Idea 4: Idea 2 but the Chinese Soviet republic only covers Ningxia. Modern-day Ningxia has 38% Hui, which is quite a lot, though probably still not enough for it to be a "Hui state", so this one runs into the same problem.
Idea 5: The Soviets carve a Dungan (A)SSR out of Dungan-majority areas in Kyrgyzstan. Why they do this beats me, but somehow they just do and the republic becomes independent in 1991.
Idea 6: The Taiping Rebellion succeeds; relations with the Hui and Pingnan Guo cool down fairly quickly as the Taiping, in their zeal and fundamentalism, try to stamp out Islam in favour of God Worshipping, leading to heavy persecution of Muslims. After the Taiping lose a big ass war (WWII or otherwise), a Hui homeland is set up a la Pakistan.
Idea 7: Same as Idea 6 but with an Axis Kuomintang instead that somehow starts to despise the Hui.
Idea 8: Somehow, OTL!Tunganistan remains a thing. Most likely completely impossible no matter what.
The recurring issue with many of these attempts is that whatever state we create for the Hui or Dungans would not actually have a Hui/Dungan majority. This could be resolved with population transfers in the cases of idea 1, 6 and 7, but that might not always work. The most workable idea of them all really does seem to be the Panthay Rebellion, and even then, the Pingnan kingdom is really just fucked by its location and demographics (it would've really, really helped if Pingnan was somewhere in Northwestern China instead of in the very south). Idea 6 is nice but I'd prefer something that avoids the Taiping coming to power.
So with all that said ... uhh, now what? I'm very stumped admittedly. Even the best ideas I could cook up are full of holes and problems. So with that in mind, my question is; how can a Hui nation-state come into being, and when?
Looking for something that matches the following:
- Hui and/or Dungans are the main ethnicity of the state and the majority of its population (or at the very very least a plurality, but I prefer a majority)
- The state is separate and independent from China, which is a for the rest fully unified country (so no excessive warlording; otherwise balkanizing China into a dozen or more states is not allowed either)
- It lasts to the present.
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