A Stable and Peaceful Xinjiang

Ismail Tiliwaldi, Governor of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, recently gave a special
interview to Beijing Review, introducing the region’s progress in social stability

By FENG JIANHUA

“No bombing occurred in Xinjiang this past year. And none of the hundreds of foreigners living here have met any trouble,” Governor Ismail Tiliwaldi told Beijing Review.

GLOBAL VIEW: Governor Ismail Tiliwaldi says Xinjiang has set up trade relations with 108 countries

Located in China’s northwest boarder area, Xinjiang, covering 1.66 million square meters, 17 percent of China’s land, boasts the largest administrative division in China. In contrast, it only has a population of 19.34 million, 1.5 percent of the country’s total. An official count of 47 ethnic groups account for more than 60 percent of the population. The region is home to many religions, ethnic groups and cultures. This northwest region of China also has a high confluence with eight foreign neighbors, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.

However, Xinjiang has experienced a difficult time fitting into modern China. The “East Turkistan” terrorist organizations have fomented social instability, caused security concerns in the region and seriously disturbed local economic development. So for good reason, people nowadays are curious how the situation in Xinjiang is going? Isamial Tiliwaldi shed some light on this remote region.

Beijing Review: For a long time, southern Xinjiang had been in a state of poverty with low living standards compared with other parts of the region. Has the people’s life improved? And what is the security situation there?

Tiliwaldi: We have experienced unbalanced development in the past. But in recent years, thanks to the support of the Central Government and the efforts of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, economic development has started to accelerate.

In 2003, the gross domestic product (GDP) reached 187.5 billion yuan ($22.65 billion), an increase of 10.8 percent over the previous year. Per-capita GDP that year was 9,686 yuan ($1,171), higher than the national average, which was $1,090. Now, virtually all townships and 90 percent of villages have blacktop roads. And over 90 percent of the region has newspapers, radio broadcasts, and TVs. Drinking water problems in some drought areas have been solved.

It has been reported that a large number of farmers in Xinjiang are moving to the China-Kazakhstan border area to settle the frontier lands, meanwhile, people from other provinces and regions are moving to Xinjiang. Is this true?

The opening-up policy is a policy of both the Central Government and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. We should take advantage of our geographical location and speed up the opening to our neighboring countries while making policies for economic development. Currently, we have set up trade relations with 108 countries, and foreign firms from more than 30 countries have been established here. Our relations with the neighboring countries are even closer. We both welcome Kazakhstani people to join us in cultivating the land here and encourage Xinjiang people and companies to get involved in the development of Kazakhstan.

With China’s rapid economic growth and an improved transportation situation, it is not strange that more and more people flow in and out of Xinjiang. According to our statistics, in recent years, the number of domestic tourists to Xinjiang has exceeded 10 million each year, including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan. On top of that, there have been about 250,000 foreign travelers in Xinjiang annually. But we had no idea that there would be many immigrants from other provinces and regions, nor did I receive any instruction from the Central Government in this aspect.

About two or three years ago, terrorist attacks frequently occurred in Xinjiang. What is the security situation now? What is the result of the joint anti-terrorist effort made by China and its neighboring countries?

There were neither terrorist cases this past year, nor any foreign-sponsored outbursts of crime. This also helped promote the social stability and unity among people of all ethnic groups here.

The Central Government has paid great attention to the safety of people and strengthened its efforts to fight against terrorists that hide in border areas in Xinjiang. The United Nations has put “East Turkmenistan” militant groups on its list of terrorist organizations. Last December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a list of the four “East Turkistan” terrorist organizations that receive military training in foreign countries including the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the East Turkistan Liberation Organization, the World Uygur Youth Congress and the East Turkistan Information Center. Hasan Mahsum, head of the ETIM, was shot dead by Pakistani troops on October 2, 2003 in a joint anti-terror raid along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pakistanis have particularly cooperated with us on anti-terrorism. We will continue to keep close cooperation with neighboring countries in fighting against terrorism.

Are the political rights and religious freedoms of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang protected?

MAKING MUSIC: Uygur musicians celebrate at one of the many festivals held in the region

The aim of regional ethnic autonomous system in areas with high ethnic population is to secure the political rights of the inhabitants. Correspondingly, the Central Government attaches great importance to the selection of various ethnic officials for governmental posts. In 1955, there were only over 3,000 officials of ethnic groups. The number has increased to over 348,000, accounting for nearly 52 percent of the governmental officials in the region. I, myself, am of an ethnic minority of Uygur. Moreover, students in Xinjiang are educated in various languages of their own ethnic tongue. These languages are also used in newspapers, radio broadcasts and TV programs.

Diverse religion, places of worship and religion activity are greatly respected and well protected here. Today, there are 23,000 mosques in Xinjiang, meeting the needs of Islamic believers.

The new term of the Central Government is focusing on problems related to the countryside, agriculture and farmers. Being an agrarian region, what is being done in this regard?

As over 70 percent of the total population of Xinjiang are farmers, agriculture is vital to the overall situation of the region. Forestry, fruit production and stockbreeding are Xinjiang’s backbone sectors. Also, our output of cotton reached 1.6 million tons in 2003, which was one third of the country’s total. The export of tomato sauce was 25 percent of the world’s total volume.

The core issue in agriculture is raising farmers’ incomes. So, Xinjiang has continuously improved agricultural mechanization to increase its productivity. Today, Xinjiang leads the nation in this regard. Efforts have been made in promoting rural fee-to-tax reform, aimed at reducing farmers’ financial burdens by curbing local arbitrary tax levies. By doing so, we reduced the burden of farmers by about 810 million yuan ($97.83 million) last year alone.

What kind of roles played by women of ethnic groups in the economic development of Xinjiang?

Women have also contributed a lot to the development of Xinjiang. The autonomous regional government strives to protect women’s legal rights and interests and help them attain equal treatment in employment, education and serving in governmental posts.

In Xinjiang, many women serve as high-ranking governmental officials. We also have more and more female entrepreneurs, some of whom are very well established. Though we only have two academicians at the state level, one of them is a woman.