Grape harvest in Kuqa, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (PHOTO: VCG)

By TANG Zhexiao

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has seen remarkable all-round development in recent years.

It now enjoys steady and sound economic growth, ongoing improvement of people's livelihood and steady progress in all undertakings. The social sense of fulfillment, happiness and security has also been on the rise across the region.

Unprecedented achievements received praise

Chea Munyrith, president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association, said the inspection tour of China's top leader to the region recently fully reflected the Chinese government's efforts to implement strategies for Xinjiang in the new era, and its concerns for people of all ethnic groups.

"Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, Xinjiang has achieved unprecedented development achievements, and Xinjiang's future will definitely be better," said Munyrith.

Since the establishment of the autonomous region in 1955, Xinjiang's GDP has increased by about 160-fold, and both urban and rural areas have undergone rapid changes, according to Rashid Alimov, ex-secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, who added that with improved infrastructure and transportation, Xinjiang has now become a popular tourist attraction.

Meanwhile, the Uygur population in Xinjiang grew from over 8.3 million in 2000 to over 11.6 million in 2020, and the region's average life expectancy rose from less than 30 years in 1949 to 74.7 in 2019.

Kamal Gaballa, columnist of Egypt's newspaper Al-Ahram, has visited Xinjiang many times, and said he particularly noticed that the rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are fully guaranteed, and ethnic customs and habits are fully respected. "I see and feel the joy of people in the region," he said.

Negative reports have not hampered Xinjiang's development

On factual evidence, it is difficult to ignore the fact that Xinjiang's people are living a good life.

Success of poverty alleviation in 2020 made Xinjiang achieve "two assurances and three guarantees", meaning assurances of adequate food and clothing, and guarantees of access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing for impoverished rural residents have been fully realized.

The region is embracing a new era of prosperity and modernization.

Official data shows that from 2012 to 2021, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Xinjiang increased from 17,921 RMB to 37,642 RMB,while the per capita disposable income of rural residents increased from 6,394 RMB to 15,575 RMB.

From January to May this year, 263,000 new jobs were created in urban areas of Xinjiang, completing 57.17 percent of the annual target.

The Western media reports, which stigmatize and demonize Xinjiang and endorse the lie of "forced labor" there, are unfounded.

Essam Sharaf, former Egyptian Prime Minister said the reason why anti-China forces in the U.S. and the West are keen on hyping up the so-called Xinjiang issue at every turn, is that they want to suppress China's development through excluding Xinjiang products from the global supply chain and curbing Xinjiang's economic development.

Sci-tech vitality boosting high-quality development

As a core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang is transforming from a hinterland into a frontier of opening-up and ushering in a period of strategic opportunities for high-quality development.

For decades, Xinjiang has been making efforts to promote the innovation-driven development strategy and has achieved a number of core technological achievements.

With the help of technology and automated agricultural machinery, like self-developed BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, this year's spring plowing in Xinjiang was much more efficient.

"The degree of mechanization in cotton sowing is about 95 percent, while it can reach 98 percent when we plant wheat. The use of automated agricultural machinery has significantly cut the cost of labor," said Guo Shixue, head of the technological support department of a cooperative at a farm in Yuli county, Bayingolin Mongol autonomous prefecture.

E-commerce is booming and opens doors to online marketing of agricultural products. In 2021, the region saw its penetration rates of mobile phones and mobile broadband subscribers stand at 117.5 per 100 people and 95.7 per 100 people, respectively. Nearly two billion RMB has been invested in building over 19,000 5G base stations.

"Xinjiang's development achievements left a good impression on me, and the modernization of the region's urban and rural areas exceeded my expectations," said Walid Abdallah, an Egyptian author and editor."During my visits to several enterprises manufacturing agricultural products, I noticed that they had all turned to modern marketing techniques, including e-commerce and live streaming marketing," he said.