The Real Picture of Xinjiang.

Windhoek, Feb. 5 – – For some time, certain countries have been consistently hyping Xinjiang-related issues, making arbitrary attacks on China’s Xinjiang policies in the name of “human rights”. They have maliciously criticized China’s efforts of anti-terrorism and extremism eradication, deliberately distorted the fact and truth. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unscrupulously fabricated lies such as the “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” in Xinjiang. The whole 1.4 billion Chinese people are indignant about it and adamantly oppose such nonsense accuses. Today, I am going to telling my Namibian friends a real picture of Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, one of the five autonomous regions for ethnic minorities of China, is located in the north-western China, bordering 8 countries including Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. The total area is 1,664,900 square kilometers, equaling about 2 Namibia’s territory and accounting for one-sixth of China’s land. It is also a provincial administrative with the largest land area, most neighboring countries and longest land boundary line in China. Xinjiang accommodates multiple ethnicities and we can find all the 56 ethnicities of China there. More than 12 million Uygur people lived in Xinjiang, making up 48% of its total population. There are also some other ethnic groups with a population size of over one million living there such as Han, Kazak and Hui.

Xinjiang was called the Western Regions in ancient China. It became one integral part of China’s territory since the Han dynasty (the year of BC 60) and was put under the military and political jurisdiction of Sui, Tang, Ming, Qing dynasties. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Xinjiang, as a region of multiple ethnics, cultures and religions, has marched on a right track towards development and prosperity and has made impressive world-known achievements.

Since the 1990’s, Xinjiang has been increasingly affected by the international religious extremism currents, and its peace has thus been broken. The dregs of separatists, religious extremists and terrorists floated up again. In particular, a few separatists attempted to create division among local people, so as to establish a theocracy named Islamic Republic of East Turkestan governed by fundamentalism through terrorism actions. Those separatists and their accomplices abroad have devised and organized thousands of violent incidents like explosions, assassinations, arson, poisoning, terrorist attacks and so on, some of which even happened in Beijing, Kunming and other big cities. All of those have seriously damaged the safety and freedom of normal religious belief and other basic human rights of every ethnic group. The manipulator behind those incidents was the most destructive Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM). In September 2002, the Security Council of United Nations listed ETIM as a terrorist organization through resolutions.

In order to safeguard Xinjiang’s stability and development and better protect the lives of people of all ethnic groups across the country, the Chinese government has launched preventative anti-terrorism and extremism eradication measures in Xinjiang in accordance with the law and coordinated with the international communities to struck the ETIM, for the sake of clearing off the soil for the breed and spread of terrorism and religious extremism. The measures the Chinese government has taken completely complies with the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent Violent Extremism, and has been extensively welcomed and supported by the vast majority of Xinjiang people. Those measures have scored obvious results and Xinjiang’s anti-terrorism achievements has been conspicuous. Not a single violent and terrorist incidents has taken place in Xinjiang in the past 4 years and the social environment continues to be peaceful and stable. 

During the same period, Xinjiang has also made unprecedented achievements in socio-economic development and people’s livelihood improvement. As one of the most important grain and cotton production bases in China, Xinjiang’s agricultural mechanization and water-saving irrigation are at the forefront of the country. Modern cities have sprung up like bright pearls in the desert. Numerous highways and civil airports connect all prefectures and cities in Xinjiang.  99.74% of administrative villages are linked to the main road network , and railway mileage reaches 5959 kilometers. From 2014 to 2019, Xinjiang’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 7.2%, higher than the national average. Even under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xinjiang’s GDP in 2020 still increased by 3.4% over the previous year, 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average level. Decisive achievements have been made in poverty alleviation. 3,666 poor villages and 32 poor counties in Xinjiang have left poverty behind, and more than 3 million poor people have been lifted out of poverty. The number of Chinese and foreign tourists who came to Xinjiang broke the record, reaching 230 million in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 41.96%.

Xinjiang has never been more prosperous than it is now, with  a harmonious ethnical relations and continuous economic development. Residents in Xinjiang live a happy life. While cracking down on violent and terrorist crimes in accordance with the law, Xinjiang pays great attention to guaranteeing the political rights, freedom of religious belief, and ethnic cultural rights, and fully guarantees the rights of all ethnic groups to participate in the management of state affairs on an equal footing and independently manage the affairs of their own regions and ethnic groups. According to Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the chairman of the regional government, and the chairman of the region’s people’s political consultative conference are all from minority ethnic groups. Among the deputies of the current autonomous region’s people’s congress, minority ethnic representatives accounted for 64.2%. The freedom of religious belief for the people of all ethnic groups are guaranteed. The number of mosques in Xinjiang has increased tenfold compared to 40 years ago, and the number of mosques per person is higher than many Muslim countries. The Uyghur population in Xinjiang rose from 10.17115 million to 12.7184 million between 2010 and 2018, an increase of 25.04%, which was significantly higher than the 13.99% increase in the population of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and the 2% increase in the Han population. It is a malicious rumor created by some western politician that China implement compulsory “sterilization” policy in Xinjiang. Xinjiang also protects the rights of all ethnic groups to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. Xinjiang radio and television institutions use Uyghur, Chinese, and other languages for broadcasting and publishing. College entrance examination in Xinjiang provides test papers in 5 different languages including Uyghur, Chinese, kazakh, from which students could freely choose. The Chinese government has also issued preferential policy for Xinjiang minority students to be enrolled in universities.

Thus it can be seen that Xinjiang-related issues are not issues about human rights, ethnicity or religion at all, but about combating violent terrorism and separatism. Some countries have intentionally turned a deaf ear to the large number of innocent casualties caused by terrorist incidents in Xinjiang, and turned a blind eye to Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements in anti-terrorism and de-radicalization, economic development and human rights protection. They politicized the so called “Xinjiang-related issues” and pursued a double standard on counter-terrorism by brazenly revoking the designation of the ETIM as a “terrorist organization”, in an attempt to wash out and condone the ETIM. An American politician slandered China’s Xinjiang-related policies as “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” on the last day before stepping down. Their purpose is nothing more than to vilify China’s image, undermine China’s stability, and contain China’s development. Justice naturally inhabits people’s hearts. In July 2019, more than 50 countries’ permanent representatives to the UN agencies in Geneva sent a joint letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights commending China’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts and protection of human rights. In October 2019, over 60 countries spoke at the Third Committee session of the 74th UNGA applauding the tremendous progress made in Xinjiang’s human rights cause. In July 2020, 46 countries delivered a joint address at the 44th session of the UNHRC in support of China’s position, practice and progress on issues concerning Xinjiang. In September 2020, at the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council, representatives of many a country spoke highly of China’s Xinjiang policy and Namibia categorically denounced any intervention in other countries’ internal affairs with the excuse of human rights. In October 2020, nearly 50 countries recognized the measures China has taken in Xinjiang when the Third Committee of the 75th UNGA was reviewing relevant issues. So far, diplomats from more than 110 countries and representatives of a large number of international organizations have visited Xinjiang, and they have seen a real Xinjiang with their own eyes.

I believe that the public will decide which is right and which is wrong. No matter how hard those individual western politicians try to lie, deceive and sow discords between Xinjiang and the Chinese government,or between China and other countries, they are doomed failure destabilizing Xinjiang or stopping Xinjiang’s development. The Chinese government and people are firmly opposed to any external interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of Xinjiang-related issues and are determined to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. 

Xinjiang is a beautiful and magical place with magnificent scenery, rich produce, and fragrance of melons and fruits. It is a world-famous tourist destination and has many similarities with Namibia in terms of landform and climate. It is better to see for oneself rather than to hear for many times. We welcome Namibian friends to set foot on Xinjiang and take a look at it after the pandemic, to experience a beautiful, prosperous, and stable Xinjiang in person, so as not to be deceived and misled by rumors and lies.

By H.E. Zhang Yiming, Chinese Ambassador to Namibia. 

Robert Maseka

mrobert@namibiadailynews.info