> It was more often than not ruinously expensive and fraught with failure for the non-foreign Chinese empires to attempt to subjugate the steppes in the pre-gunpowder era
That isn't incompatible with what the article says, though. Just because China wasn't actively going out and attacking the steppe peoples, doesn't mean that the steppe peoples weren't actively going out and raiding Chinese villages, souring China's relations with individual steppe tribes (even if China never mounted any punitive expeditions in response.)
The difference being proposed here, I think, is that the Uighurs actively sought to pacify and build trade relations with the Chinese Empire, and actively prevented their citizens from engaging in raiding across the Chinese border.
That isn't incompatible with what the article says, though. Just because China wasn't actively going out and attacking the steppe peoples, doesn't mean that the steppe peoples weren't actively going out and raiding Chinese villages, souring China's relations with individual steppe tribes (even if China never mounted any punitive expeditions in response.)
The difference being proposed here, I think, is that the Uighurs actively sought to pacify and build trade relations with the Chinese Empire, and actively prevented their citizens from engaging in raiding across the Chinese border.