China publishes white paper on Xinjiang
- Source: Xinhua
- [15:33 September 21 2009]
- Comments
Huge progress was also made in areas including education, science, arts, health and medical services, employment, social security, as well as the preservation of ethnic cultures, according to the paper.
In Xinjiang, citizens of every ethnic group enjoy the rights prescribed by the Constitution and laws, including freedom of religious belief, and rights to vote and stand for election, it said.
According to the Constitution and laws, they also enjoy the rights to equally administer state affairs, to receive education, to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve and advance the traditional culture of their own peoples, according to the paper.
The number of Xinjiang's cadres from minority ethnic groups was 46,000 in 1955. It shot up to 363,000 in 2008, accounting for 51.25 percent of the total number of cadres in Xinjiang, it said.
Most people of Xinjiang's 10 major ethnic minority groups, with a total population of over 11.3 million, believe in Islam now, it said.
The number of Islamic mosques has soared from 2,000 in the early days of the reform and opening-up drive to 24,300 now, and the body of clergy from 3,000 to over 28,000, according to the paper.
"All these achievements would have been impossible for Xinjiang without national unification, social stability, or ethnic unity," the paper said.
However, for years, the "East Turkistan" forces in and outside Xinjiang have been trumpeting national separatism, and plotted and organized a number of bloody incidents of terror and violence, seriously jeopardizing national unification, social stability and ethnic unity, thus seriously disrupting Xinjiang's development and progress, it said.
"The 'East Turkistan' forces pose a severe threat to the development and stability of Xinjiang," the paper said.
The "East Turkistan" forces have seriously violated the basic human rights to life and development of all the peoples of Xinjiang, seriously interrupted the region's economic development, and pose a threat to regional security and stability, it said.
According to incomplete statistics, from 1990 to 2001, the "East Turkistan" forces both inside and outside China created more than 200 bloody incidents of terror and violence in Xinjiang, by means of explosions, assassinations, poisoning, arson, attacking, riots and assaults, it said.
As a result, 162 citizens, including people of various ethnicities, cadres at the grassroots level and religious personnel, lost their lives, and over 440 were wounded, according to the paper.
In 2002, they again organized several bloody incidents of terror and violence in Xinjiang. The most recent "July 5" riot in Urumqi caused huge losses in lives and property of the people of various ethnic groups, it said.
By July 17, 2009, 197 people died (most being innocent victims) and over 1,700 were injured, with 331 shops and 1,325 motor vehicles destroyed or burned, and many public facilities were damaged, figures from the paper showed.
"Ethnic unity is a blessing for all peoples, while separatism would be disastrous," it said.
"It has become clearer for the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang that national unification, ethnic unity, social stability, plus the coexistence and development in harmony of all peoples who share weal and woe are the lifeblood for the region's development and progress," the paper said.
