What is Xinjiang really like?

II

“People love it and want to come again”, “My WeChat wallet is getting thicker by the day”, “Education is increasingly improved with greater equity”, and “Life is getting better every day” … in the eyes of people living in Xinjiang: no political party in the world is like the CPC, who puts its people in the most important position.

A dancer performs traditional dance in Hami City of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 2, 2022. (Photo/ Guangming Picture)

Daoxiang Village in Hotan County’s Aizhiq Town sits in the very south of the Taklamakan Desert. It’s a “celebrity village” on Douyin, the Chinese edition of TikTok. According to locals, it’s a village that tourists, both adults and kids, would “fall in love with instantaneously and would definitely come again”.

The village gives us far more surprises than on the short video app.

Open gardens, exotic housing styles with painted eaves and carved patterns on window frames, who would reject an invite to sit down on a large, cool carpet under the shady grapevines, not to mention the temptation of crisp noodles, nang breads, yogurt, peaches, milk tea and watermelons. In the hot sun, nothing is more soothing than sitting in the shade in the breeze, tasting a wide variety of snacks while enjoying the beautiful view of the endless paddy fields.

In recent years, Party committees and governments at all levels in Xinjiang have prioritized the construction of beautiful and livable villages for rural revitalization, Daoxiang Village has developed its tourism business such as special cuisine. agritainment, embroidery workshops, and home-hostels. Appealing to tourists, traditional elements such as nang stoves and local barbecues have also retained the historical culture and local flavors.

With the aroma of lamb, carrot and rice coming all together, and her four grandchildren playing under grapevines, 52-year-old Awanisha told reporters that her family’s 5 mu of paddy field was rented to the cooperative, “Now we have turned from farmers to bosses, and when business is good, the monthly income from home-hostel could exceed10,000 yuan, the money just keep flowing in!”

The new village of Jinhua in Wensu County, located in the northwest of the Taklamakan Desert, gives people a strong south-China feel. A large lake is decorated with lotus leaves and flowers, and the paddy field along the bank leads you to a walkway under grapevines that connects to a south-China styled compound. It’s actually a village of more than 2,400 people, who had relocated here under the one-on-one aid program in partnership with Zhejiang’s Jinhua City. More than 80% of the villagers are Uygurs, and the per capita annual income from special agribusiness and countryside tourism reached nearly 20,000 yuan.

Graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Finance, 25-year-old Maier Haba Tursun told reporters that she first tried job-hunting in Shanghai, but then chose to return home after seeing how beautiful her hometown had become. She set up her own business of walnut and black honey processing, and an agritainment hostel. “I don’t think there’s any difference from living in the coastal regions in eastern China. Here every family has a car, and many are driving expensive SUVs”, she said.

Thirty-one-year-old Abdul Aini Tursun is a successful businessman in his village: he’s running a successful agritainment business as he learned cooking before. Now he owns a grape- and fig-picking garden. Plus, he has contracted 40 mu of walnut trees. “Thanks to the Party’s supportive policies, my WeChat wallet is getting thicker by the day, it’s exciting to see the number grow so fast”, he told reporters.

If human rights protection is an integral part of the beautiful landscape in Xinjiang, then the highlight is the protection of human rights of women and children.

Thirty-six-year-old Semyhe Elken is an entrepreneurial woman from the ancient city of Kashgar who is dedicated to the business of beauty. She returned to her hometown after graduating from the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. She dreamed of putting on a white wedding dress when she got married in 2010, but had to drop the idea because of strong opposition from her relatives. In 2012, she decided to open a wedding dress store, and the Municipal Women’s Federation assisted with a start-up fund. Now Semyhe designs wedding dresses that are highly sought after by young women because of the combination of fashion elements and ethnic styles. Her business is getting bigger and bigger, and today she is already the chairwoman of a cultural media group.

Mayerzej Kurban is 14 years old, a first-year student at Shanshan County No. 1 Middle School in Turpan. She became known as the “Desert Soccer Girl” after a documentary titled “Beyond the Mountains” went viral in 2021. She secretly joined the school’s girls’ soccer team as a 4th-grader in primary school despite her mother’s objection. Playing in the desert and running on the field, soccer made her lively and cheerful. Her wish, in her own words, is to become a “sonorous rose” in full bloom. At its heyday, the country’s national team of female soccer players got the collective pet name “sonorous roses”.

Children are in class at a school in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 16, 2022. (Photo/ Guangming Picture)

Education is a pathway to modernization for ethnic minorities. From the full coverage of the nine-year compulsory education in Xinjiang, to the 15-year free education in southern Xinjiang, education in Xinjiang is progressing towards greater equity and higher quality.

Kulban Niyazi, 58, is the principal of the Mandarin Primary School in Imaamu, a small town in the border area of Ushu County, Aksu Prefecture. Believing firmly that Mandarin could end the seclusion and bring modern life to local villagers, he returned to his hometown 20 years ago and took out all his savings of 600,000 yuan to set up the Mandarin school, which turned out to be a game changer for the village. The majority of the more than 700 graduates have been admitted to middle schools, some have been admitted to Tsinghua and other prestigious universities, and some even went abroad for further studies. His wish is to light up the beacon of hope for rural boys and girls so they, too, can achieve their dreams.

Wensu County is building a new school covering an area of 279 mu, with a building area of nearly 130,000 square meters, which allows students to study for 12 years straight. In September, the first batch of students will arrive, and Kurban Niyazi, a Mandarin education enthusiast, will serve as their principal.

Traveling across the mountains and deep into the grasslands and Gobi deserts, we saw that Xinjiang’s beauty is shaped by its respect for human rights. As of the end of 2020, all 3,064,900 rural poor in Xinjiang under the current standard had been lifted out of poverty, all 3,666 poor villages and the 35 poor counties had been removed from the list. Over the past 60 years since the establishment of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the total Uygur population has grown from 2.2 million to about 12 million, and average life expectancy has increased from 30 to 74.7 years.

There is no political party in the world that places the people so central in its heart and works for their well-being with such deep affection as the CPC does.

In contrast, how hypocritical and shameful are those American politicians who keep talking, and only talking, about human rights! They’d better look at themselves in the mirror and see behind them the long list of poor human rights records:

As Covid-19 rages all over the world and people demand real fight against the virus, the US government is busy shifting the blame while showing no regard to the lives of its own people. To date, there have been more than 1.06 million deaths in the country, the highest in the world.

Campus shootings are a frequent occurrence and have become a lingering nightmare for elementary and middle school students and teachers. Last school year alone, there were 146 campus shootings in the US. Just as politicians were playing their partisan games, another shooting took place at a Texas elementary school in May, taking 21 lives.

Once calling itself “heaven for immigrants”, the US has been detaining immigrants indiscriminately. In recent years, it has detained 266,000 immigrant children, forcibly separating them from their parents, and many immigrant families were cruelly torn apart.

The US has waged wars and slaughtered civilians, seriously undermining the right to life and survival. In the past 20 years, more than 250,000 civilians died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At least 350,000 people have lost their lives in Syria as a result of US military involvement.

While we were in Xinjiang, a horrific story was reported by a Western media outlet, exposing the massacre of civilians by British forces in the war in Afghanistan. An entire Afghan family could be ruined simply because they looked suspicious.

Bishara Aishanhali, an official from Xinyuan County, said with a serious look on his face: “The tragedy in our neighboring country is really heartbreaking. With the strength of the motherland comes peace in Xinjiang; when Xinjiang enjoys stability, people of all ethnic groups here can live to their fullest”.

Well said it is, but one will gain a better understanding by walking deep into Xinjiang that “human rights” are not designed as a decoration, rather it’s an enabler for people’s pursuit of a better life.