Riot Can’t Change Today’s Xinjiang

Many proofs confirmed that the splittist Rebiya Kadeer and her “World Uyghur Congress” should be blamed for the Xinjiang July 5 Riot. The Chinese people will not let their conspiracies carry out.

Peace-loving people will never forget the July 5 riot in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which caused more than one hundred deaths and one thousand injuries. When people mourn for the dead and injured in the riot, they should not forget who should be responsible for this riot.

Retrospection of the Riot and the Truth behind It

On the afternoon of July 5, 2009, people were enjoying themselves in the People’s Square of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They never expected that a hazard would happen later.

At 6:00 pm, people began to mass in the square, some of them seemed to be agitated. Two hours later, thousands of thugs in Urumqi began to smash and burn cars and stores in the city. They beat or even killed the innocent people walking on the street. At 9:00 pm, the journalist from Xinhua News Agency saw the thugs’ violent and cruel behaviors in the Second Road Bridge of Urumqi. Some citizens lied in the blood, without knowing to be alive or dead. The policemen and special armies quickly came to scenes to stop the riot and arrest the thugs. However, some of the thugs even openly fight against the policemen. Some thugs were seen to capsize the police cars and set fire on them.

In the Longquan Street, a mid-aged man was attacked by a group of thugs. The man was quickly knocked onto the ground. But the thugs didn’t stop beating him. A thug with red T-shirt even stabbed the man’s neck with a dagger.

The same thing can also be seen in the other places of Urumqi. Some bodies were seen lying on the ground; a large cigarette store was burnt and a taxi was smashed by the thugs, with the driver lying in the vehicle unconsciously.

Xinjiang University was also attacked. More than one thousand thugs tried to break into the campus. Many restaurants and supermarkets around the university were completely burnt down. Some of the residents living around here didn’t dare to go back home and were forced to hide in the bushes.

Many ordinary Uyghur people, seeing their Han brothers or sisters being injured and lying on the ground helplessly, initiatively provided help for them even though they might be hurt by the thugs.

The riot was appeased at dawn of July 7. Most of the thugs were arrested and the policemen began to search for the prime criminal. On August 5, the government declared that 197 people died in the riot, including 156 innocent people and 41 thugs.

Two days after the riot, the Chinese central government senior officials, like Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu, went to Urumqi to comfort the injured and the relatives of the dead. Xinjiang government, with the help of central government, began to compensate people suffering losses in the riot.

After the investigation, the Chinese government found that the riot is agitated by the splittist Rebiya Kadeer and her “World Uyghur Congress”. It is known that this organization spread rumor through the Internet, agitating the thugs to start the riot.

  
Rebiya Kadeer (right) is the prime criminal of the Xinjiang July 5 riot

Rebiya Kadeer: the Woman behind the Riot

Who will be responsible for the riot and so many deaths and injuries? Rebiya Kadeer and her “World Uyghur Congress” are the ones to be blamed.

Rebiya Kadeer was born in Aletai, Xinjiang in 1951. Since the reform and opening up, she opened a small store in Urumqi and accumulated more than 100 million yuan (USD 14.64 million), becoming the richest woman in Xinjiang at that time.

Then Rebiya once was the vice chairman of the Business Association of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Vice Head of Xinjiang Female Entrepreneur Chamber. She was also selected to be a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

However, such a notable woman in business and politics had serious financial problems. According to the investigation, Rebiya and her children owned Akeda Trade Co., Ltd. which was registered the commercial and industrial bureau of Urumqi. From 1994 to 2004, this company took many ways to avoid paying taxes. The total amount of ex dodging and tax evasion reached 8 million yuan (USD 1.17 million); the amount of unpaid overdue tax reached 20 million yuan (USD 2.93 million); the amount of unpaid banking and individual loans also reached 28 million yuan (USD 4.10 million).

In 1999, Rebiya was arrested for the crime of damaging state safety. A year later, the court in Urumqi sentenced Rebiya to eight years’ jail for her illegal divulgence of the state secrets.

When she was serving her sentence, Rebiya put forward the application medical parole. The Chinese judiciary department approved her application in consideration of humanitarianism. In March 2005 Rebiya went to the USA for medical parole. Before leaving, she promised that she would not do anything harmful to China’s national safety.

However, Rebiya ate her words as soon as she left China. She met the infamous heads of terrorism, splittism and extremism to collaborate on the movements harmful to China. Meanwhile, she ordered her subordinates in China to transfer her assets in China to the foreign countries in every means.

In August 2008, three serious violent incidents continuously happened in Xinjiang, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries and huge amount of financial losses. Many proofs showed that Rebiya was the prime criminal of those incidents.

According to the introduction of Nur Bekri, Deputy Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Rebiya and her “World Uyghur Congress” put forward a three-to-five-year “independence plan” in 2008. On the one hand, they colluded with some westerners holding hostile attitudes towards China to stigmatize and abuse the Chinese government’s national policies; on the other hand, they promulgated their splittism inside China, trying to confuse the ordinary residents who don’t know the truth.

When the truth of the incidents happening in Xinjiang last year was revealed, Rebiya turned up and tried to turn the black into white. She never hid her predilection over the notorious terrorist organization – the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and criticized and attacked the Chinese government without any rational reasons.

Rebiya and her “World Uyghur Congress” are closely related with many terrorist organizations in the world, including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and the Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization. Most of those organizations can be seen in the US list of terrorist organizations and are hated by every good people in the world.

After the Xinjiang July 5 riot, Rebiya turned up in the international media and promulgated the rumors to the world, trying to mislead the world people into believing that the riot was “a movement against the Chinese government”. Ironically, her proofs to show the “truth” of the riot were proven to be nothing but fake. In front of the miserable situation after the riot, Rebiya’s lies collapsed by itself.

Nur Bekri, a Uyghur like Rebiya, said angrily: “What contribution has Rebiya made to our nation? The Uyghur is a part of Chinese people. As a Chinese person, what did Rebiya do to her motherland?” Rebiya’s ex-husband Abdurehim saw the riot in his own eyes. He felt quite sad and criticized his ex-wife’s behavior. Her eldest son Kahar said: “I hope that my mother will not do those things. Splittism is no good to both her and us. I am living a happy life now and I treasure this peaceful and harmonious life very much. I don’t want my life to be affected by my mothers’ behavior.”

Kahar and his father were trying to work out a letter to show their sorrow to the poepl falling victims to the riot.

Therefore, we can see most people don’t like Rebiya’s behaviors of splitting Xinjiang from China, which was doomed to failure from the start.  

 
Xinjiang's dry fruits and local music instruments

Xinjiang, the Big Families of all Nationalities

By the end of 2008, the total population in Xinjiang reached 21.31 million, and the population of minorities accounted for 61%. With 55 nationalities, Xinjiang is like a big family in which Uyghur nationality is the majority and all nationalities live together.

In Xinjiang, Uyghur nationality has the largest population, accounting for 46% of the total population in Xinjiang. They are distributed in most areas in Xinjiang and concentrated in Kashgar, Khotan in the south of Tianshan Mountains, as well as Hami and Turfan in eastern Xinjiang. Uyghur nationality has a long history of culture and art. Its ethnic music and traditional handicraft are rich in contents. They also show their enthusiastic and passionate characters in songs and dances. They are the major nationality believing in Islam.

Apart from Uyghur nationality, lots of nationalities have been living in Xinjiang for generations, including Han, Kazak, Hui, Mongolian, Khalkhas, Xibe, Tajik, Uzbek, Man, Daur, Tartar and Russian. They are the main nationalities in Xinjiang. Another 42 nationalities are also living there, including Dongxiang, Salar, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Bouyei and Korean etc. People of Han nationality are distributed all over Xinjiang, with population of 8.4 million, accounting for 39.33% of the total population in Xinjiang; the population of Kazak nationality is about 1.5 million, accounting for 7.08% of the total population. They are mainly distributed in Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture and so on; the other nationalities, though accounting for different proportion of population, are distributed in their own autonomous prefectures and live peacefully with each other.

Many languages are spoken in Xinjiang. Apart from Man and Han nationalities which use Chinese words, most other nationalities have their own languages (some languages are shared by several nationalities). At present the languages spoken in Xinjiang include Uyghur language, Kazak language, Tuote Mongolian, Xibe language, Khlkhas language and Chinese. For over 40 years, the government of Xinjiang has taken a lot of measures to guarantee that all nationalities can use and develop their own languages. A lot of measures have also been taken to ensure that the languages of minorities receive social respect and extensive application. In Xinjinag, Uyghur language and Chinese are most usually heard. In the autonomous prefectures the nationality languages of regional autonomy can be heard. In some places, you can see people speak two or three languages.

Besides the independence of languages, the minorities in Xinjiang are also respected in politics. Under the Chinese Constitution, all inhabited ethnic minorities’ exercising regional autonomy is a basic political system.

In 1955, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established. Xinjiang opened a brand new page in the national unity of implementation of regional autonomy of minority nationalities. The Uygur Autonomous Region is an autonomous area with Uygur as the main body. In the territory of an autonomous region, there lives the corresponding minority as well as the other ethnic groups. At present, there are five autonomous prefectures for four ethnic groups Kazakhstan, Hui, Kirgiz and Mongolian in Xinjiang, as well as six autonomous counties for the ethnic groups of Kazakh, Hui, Mongolian, Tajikistan and Xibe. Those ethnic autonomous areas enjoy extensive rights of autonomy, including the administrative power and legislative power. There are a lot of cadre training schools in Xinjiang to train the minority cadres. In 1950, there were only 3,000 minority cadres in Xinjiang. In 1955, when the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established, there were 46,000 minority cadres working for the government. At present, the number of minority cadres in Xinjiang reaches 360,000, accounting for 51% of the total number of cadres. Besides, 66% of the women cadres in Xinjiang are minorities. Those minorities work together with the cadres of Han nationality, serving the citizens in Xinjiang and playing an important in maintaining and promoting the national unity and social harmony.

The level of education of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang has been continuously improved. Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, a series of measures have been adopted in order to change the situation of laggard education of ethnic minorities. The Xinjiang government always considers the improvement of minorities’ education as the primary task in education. A large amount of money has been invested into the education. By the end of 2008, there were 5882 national primary and secondary schools in Xinjiang; the enrollment rate of primary school-age children reached 97.41% and the rate for junior high school was 82.02%. Many schools in Xinjiang have the bilingual education, which focuses on teaching the students the Chinese and their mother languages.

In Xinjiang, culture and folk customs of ethnic minorities are fully respected. The culture, customs, production and daily lives of the ethnic minorities are closely related with their religious beliefs. To respect their folk customs, the government promulgated a series of provisions. For example, each city or town in Xinjiang must have a certain number of halal restaurants to meet the demand of Muslims. Some of the old religious relics, like some ancient mosques which received careful and exquisite protection and maintenance. Thousands of copies of the ancient books are printed and sold in Xinjiang to spread the elite of Xinjiang’s culture and religion.

Along the streets of Xinjiang’s cities, you can see many nationality-featured stores. Xinjiang’s cantaloupe, grape, mutton are famous and popular among not only the different nationalities in Xinjiang but also the Chinese people in the other places. Today’s Xinjiang is a big family for all the people living there, providing them with opportunities of getting work and receiving education, as well as the shelter from the outside threats and damages.

Walking in the cities in Xinjiang, people can see different costumes and taste different favors with typical national characters. In the theater or rural areas, people can enjoy the local songs and dances. No matter where they are from and who they are, they can enjoy themselves in Xinjiang.

  

Building Better Homes Together

In Xinjiang, you can see a Han child playing with a Uyghur child; you can see a Uyghur coach teaching a Hui student how to play basketball or a Kazakhstan teacher teach a Han student how to play the dombera (a local music instrument). People of different nationalities live and work together to build Xinjiang into a better home.

Before 1949, Xinjiang was featured with the primitive and laggard agricultural and pastoral individual. The industry there is quite weak. Food shortage and poverty continued to torture people. Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, especially the implementation of reform and opening-up policy, Xinjiang’s construction has made great achievements and the national economy has gained overall development. The achievements and improvement in Xinjiang are all attributed to the common unity and diligence of the people in Xinjiang.

In 2008, Xinjiang’s GDP was 420.341 billion yuan (USD 61.529 billion). The per capita GDP that year was 19,893 yuan (USD 2,911.92). Compared with the per capital less than 100 yuan in 1949, Xinjiang has changed from a destitute place into a comparatively rich place.

The comprehensive agricultural production capacity has improved significantly. The farmland irrigation network has been formed and given the farmers the benefits. The modern agricultural equipments have already been generally adopted. By the end of 2008, the total planting area in Xinjiang reached 4536.87 thousand hectares. The total output of grain, cotton, sugar beet reached 10,228,500 tons, 3,015,500 tons and 4,388,800 tons. The famous Turfan grapes, Korla fragrant pear and melon are exported to both the domestic and foreign markets. Characteristic horticulture industry, planting industry and modern animal husbandry based on science and technology all is developing at a high speed. In 2008, livestock population in Xinjiang was 47.47 million. The total output of meat and milk was respectively 1,754,900 tons and 2,090,600 tons. Xinjiang has become China’s largest production base of commodity cotton, hops and tomato sauce, as well as China’s major livestock breeding and production base of beet sugar.

Fast development also occurred to the industries like oil, petrochemicals, iron and steel, coal, electricity, textile, building materials, chemical industry, medicine, food processing and so on. In 2008 the industrial added value in Xinjiang was 179.07 billion yuan (USD 26.21 billion).

The water conservancy has grown well. With the aim of “building Xinjiang into an ecological oasis and irrigated agriculture”, the government launched large-scale irrigation and water conservancy construction and started the comprehensive treatment project of Tarim River. Kizil reservoir and Wuluwati Hydro Project in Khotan represented a group of modern large-scale water conservancy projects in Xinjiang.

The transportation has also gone through great changes. Before 1949, the traveling of people and goods mainly depended on animals. In 1962, the first railway in Xinjiang – Lan-Xin Railway was finished. Then, more and more railways were established in Xinjiang. By 2001, the operating distance of railways in Xinjiang was 3010.4 kilometers. The distance of highways in Xinjiang also increased from 3361 kilometers in 1949 to 147,000 kilometers in 2008, including 1,108 kilometers of high-grade highway. The desert high way through the Taklimakan desert was the world’s first long-distance desert highway. Now, Xinjiang has been connected with all the neighboring provinces except Tibet. The roads from Xinjiang also extend to the foreign countries, making it more convenient for people to go to the countries of central Asia. In addition, people can go to Xinjiang by air. Now, Urumqi International Airport and the other 14 airports in Xinjiang have 115 domestic and international routes.

Many places in Xinjiang are featured with beautiful natural landscapes and cultural relics. There is no reason to develop tourism there. Actually, the government did it. In the year of 2008, more than 360 thousand visitors came to Xinjiang, bringing Xinjiang with 136 million US dollars as the tourism income; more than 21.95 million domestic passengers came to Xinjiang from whom Xinjiang received income of 19.975 billion yuan (USD 2.95 billion). Tourism has become a new economic growth point of Xinjiang’s national economy.

With the economic and social development, the living standard of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang is improving year by year.

Urban and rural residents’ income rose continuously. In 2008, the per capita net income of farmers reached 3,503 yuan (USD 512.88). The average wage of town’s on-the-job workers was 24,696 yuan (USD 3,615.82). The residents of urban and town achieved an overall well-off.

Besides the increase in income the consumption structure of the residents also saw optimization. The Engel coefficient decreased from 57.3% in 1978 to 37.3% in 2008.

The income is increasing, with which people are becoming healthier. Now, Xinjiang people’s average life expectancy has been extended to 71.12 years. Xinjiang was also considered to one of the four longevity areas in the world.

Today’s Xinjiang is totally different from 60 years ago. Now, different nationalities in Xinjiang are living happily with each other and working together to build a better Xinjiang. We believe that Xinjiang has a bright outlook in the future.