Historical Witness to Ethnic Equality, Unity and Development in Xinjiang

VII. Respecting and Protecting Freedom of Religious Belief

Xinjiang is a region where several religions have existed side by side since ancient times. The religions in Xinjiang today include Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism and Orthodox Eastern Church.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the relations between different religions were very complicated. In history, there were frequent conflicts between different religions and between different sects of the same religion. In the mid-10th century, the Islamic Kara-Khanid Khanate launched a religious war against the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan. Having lasted for more than 40 years, the war caused great damage to the society and economy of southern Xinjiang and dreadful sufferings to the people there. Buddhist believers were forced to convert to Islam, and Buddhist culture was almost totally destroyed in the area. During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912), Islam split into two hostile sects - Qara-taghlyq (black mountain) and Aq-taghlyq (white mountain), whose bitter feuds lasted for hundreds of years. Muslims were compelled to take side, either this or that, thereby forfeiting their religious freedom.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the policy of religious freedom is implemented together with the practice of the policy of ethnic regional autonomy; democratic reform of religious system and law-based management of religious affairs have helped the harmonious coexistence among different religions in Xinjiang. Citizens believing in or not believing in region have treated one another with respect and understanding, ushering in a new historical period of harmonious coexistence of the various religions in Xinjiang. It is then the people of all ethnic groups in the region have indeed got the right to freedom of religious belief.

Freedom of religious belief is a basic right bestowed by the Constitution on all its citizens. It is stipulated in the Constitution as follows: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief." The Law of the People's Republic of China on Ethnic Regional Autonomy clearly rules, "Organs of self-government in ethnic autonomous areas guarantee the freedom of religious belief to citizens of the various ethnic groups..."; "No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion..."; "The state protects normal religious activities." In addition, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2004, which stipulates, "Citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief..."; "The state protects normal religious activities, as well as the legal rights and interests of believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities in accordance with the law."

The Chinese government is fully committed to a policy of freedom of religious belief, respecting its citizens' freedom to believe or not believe in religion. Citizens are equal before the law and must carry out the duties imposed by the Constitution and other laws, whether they believe in or not believe in any religion. Anyone who encroaches on the citizens' freedom of believing in or not believing in any religion shall bear legal liability, and citizens both believing in or not believing in any religion also bear legal liability for breaching the Constitution and the law.

The policy of freedom of religious belief has been fully implemented in Xinjiang. After the founding of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, people of all ethnic groups are guaranteed the right of freedom in religious belief. It is up to the person concerned to make his or her free decision to believe or not to believe in any religion, to believe in a religion in the past but not now, not to believe any religion in the past but believe one now, to believe in this or that religion and to believe in this or that sect of the same religion. All normal religious activities held by the believers either in religious venues or at their homes in line with customary religious practices are protected by the law, and no state organ, public organization or individual may interfere with such activities.

Xinjiang currently has 24,800 venues for religious activities, including mosques, churches, Buddhist temples and Daoist temples with 29,300 clerical practitioners, basically sufficient to meet the religious believers' needs for normal religious activities. In addition, the region has 112 religious organizations and eight religious colleges. In Xinjiang, 1,436 religious practitioners have been elected deputies to or members of people's congresses and the people's political consultative conferences at various levels. They have actively participated in deliberations and management of administrative affairs on behalf of religious believers, and in exercising supervision over the government in respect to the implementation of the policy of freedom of religious belief. The lawful rights and interests of religious organizations are protected by the law.

Most people of Xinjiang's 10 major ethnic groups are followers of Islam, so there are all together in Xinjiang 24,400 mosques with 28,600 clerical personnel. Since the 1980s, the central government has allocated over RMB10 million to maintaining or repairing a number of key religious sites listed under the protection of the state and the autonomous region, including the Id Kah Mosque in Kashi, Juma Mosque in Hotan, Yang Hang Mosque in Urumqi, and Emin Minaret in Turfan. The Xinjiang Islamic Institute has trained 634 students since its founding in 1987, and since 2001 has held 132 training sessions for 28,665 clerical personnel. Since 2001, in order to train high-caliber clerics, Xinjiang has sent 70 people to visit Islamic institutions of higher-learning in Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries for further studies. In accordance with standard international practices, the Chinese government has implemented a policy for planning and organizing pilgrimages. Since the 1980s, more than 50,000 people from Xinjiang have made pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The normal requirements of religious believers have been satisfied. The government of the autonomous region has managed to do a better job in the religion-related work in view of the actual conditions of the various religions; it has shown full respect to citizens' right of freedom of religious beliefs and has kept opening up new legitimate channels for religious believers to correctly understand the ABC of the various religions, thus basically satisfying the reasonable requirements of the religious believers. By 2014, more than 1.76 million copies of religious classics, books, and magazines had been published, including the Quran, Selections from Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari and Selected Works of Waez in Uygur, Kazak, Han Chinese and Kirgiz languages, the "New Collections of Waez's Speeches" series in Uygur, Kazak and Han Chinese languages, and the magazine China's Muslims. In 2013, the new Uygur edition of the Quran was published and 230,000 copies were sold. By 2014, the number of Islamic publications available in Xinjiang's ethnic minority languages exceeded 20, which basically satisfies Muslims' demands to learn about the Islam and Islamic scriptures.

Xinjiang has strengthened management of religious affairs in accordance with the law. The state and the autonomous region, following the basic principles of "protecting the lawful, banning the unlawful, holding in check the extremist, resisting infiltration and punishing crime," exercise management of religious affairs, protect the freedom of religious beliefs and ensure the orderly holding of normal religious activities and protect the legitimate rights and interests of religious organizations in accordance with the law and relevant regulations. The re-amended Regulations of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Religious Affairs were issued in 2014, indicating further implementation of the basic policy of protecting the citizens' freedom of religious belief as prescribed in the Constitution, in addition to emphasizing that religious activities must be carried out within the boundaries prescribed by the law and relevant regulations and that activities that harm national security and interests, public interests and the citizens' legitimate rights and interests in the name of religion must be banned.

Religious extremism has been firmly curbed in accordance with the law. Religious extremists advocate extreme ideas, incite religious hatred and resentment against other religions and "heretics," undermine Xinjiang's religious harmony and ethnic unity, deny the traditional Islam in Xinjiang, cause damage to its internal harmony and jeopardize the fundamental interests of Muslims. Extremist ideas distort and contravene Islamic theology, and the extremists bewitch Muslims, especially teenagers, with such heretical ideas as "the shahid (martyr) engaged in jihad (holy war) can live in the garden of Paradise," thus turning some individuals into extremists and terrorists whose thoughts are controlled and who are manipulated to frequently perform acts of violence and terrorism and kill innocent people of all ethnic groups, even their fellow Islamic clerics and Muslims. Many facts have revealed that religious extremism has developed into a real risk that has endangered national and ethnic unity, undermines religious and social harmony, menaces Xinjiang's lasting social stability and threatens the life and property safety of people of all ethnic groups. Suppressing religious extremism in accordance with the law is a just move that protects the fundamental interests of the state and the people, including Muslims themselves, and is also an important part of the international response to religious extremism. The autonomous region has always pursued the policy of freedom of religious belief, protected normal religious activities, worked hard against extremism in ensuring the life safety of the people, and effectively prevented spreading of religious extremism.

VIII. Promoting the Unique Role of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

Founded in October 1954, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) plays a key role in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It assumes the responsibilities of reclaiming the wasteland and guarding the border areas commissioned by the state, and operates a unique administrative system that combines the functions of the Party, government, military and enterprise, with economic planning directly supervised by the state. It is an organization that handles its own administrative and judicial affairs within the reclamation areas under its jurisdiction in accordance with the laws and regulations and those enacted by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. By the end of 2014, the XPCC had had under it 14 divisions comprised of 176 regiments, and was exercising jurisdiction over an area of 70,600 sq km boasting a total population of 2,732,900, accounting for 11.8 percent of Xinjiang's total.

Inspired by the XPCC spirit of "loving the motherland, selfless devotion, hard work, and forging ahead with pioneering endeavors," over the past six decades the XPCC workers have, generation after generation, made strenuous efforts to turn the desolate Gobi wilderness from time immemorial into ecological oases, initiate Xinjiang's cause of modernization, build one after another large farms and industrial and mining enterprises, and establish quite a number of new cities and towns. The XPCC has made an indelible contribution to the development of Xinjiang by promoting unity among all the ethnic groups, maintaining social stability and consolidating border defenses.

The XPCC has played an important driving role for the development and progress of Xinjiang. Starting with establishing farms by reclaiming wastelands, the XPCC expanded its activities to running mines, building factories and roads, developing commerce and trade, and initiating undertakings in science, education, culture and healthcare with funds for construction and life it had accumulated by way of working hard and practicing economy. Its regimental agricultural and stock raising farms and subordinating enterprises not only have provided for their own needs, but also have paid taxes to the local governments in accordance with the law, in addition to planning and building in succession quite a number of transport and hydropower projects as well as industrial and mining enterprises for the local governments, for free. To support Xinjiang' s industrial development, the XPCC has also transferred to the local governments, at no cost, a number of large-scale industrial, construction, transport, and commercial enterprises it had developed, making an important contribution to the modernization of the region. Since its founding, the XPCC has built eight county-level cities of Alar, Tiemenguan, Tumushuke, Kekedala, Shuanghe, Wujiaqu, Shihezi and Beitun, six administrative towns of Jinyinchuan, Caohu, Wutong, Caijiahu, Beiquan and Shihezi, and a large number of smaller towns on the regimental farms, facilitating the urbanization process in Xinjiang.

The XPCC has played an exemplar role in guiding the development of productive forces in Xinjiang. Fully exploiting its large-scale and group advantages in production organization, the Corps has built a modern agricultural system featuring mechanized, intensive and massive-scale production which is unique to China's inland arid areas, leading the nation in agricultural water-saving irrigation, promotion of mechanized farming, and the building of modern agriculture demonstration bases; it has become a key national production base for quality cotton and specialty fruit. In 2014, the total sown area of farm crops under its management reached 1,327,900 ha, accounting for 22.2 percent of the total in Xinjiang. The total output of cotton was 1.6 million tons, making up 36.3 percent of Xinjiang's production and 26.6 percent of the national total, leading the country for years in per-unit yield, rate of mechanization and per-capita output. It also tops the country in both output and scale of production of water-saving irrigation equipment, tomato products and cotton textile spindles. Ninety-one items of its farm produce have been acknowledged as famous brands or reputed trademarks of China and Xinjiang.

The XPCC has promoted ethnic unity in Xinjiang. In Xinjiang, the divisions, regimental farms, enterprises and public institutions under the XPCC are extensively scattered in the various prefectures, cities, counties of Xinjiang, closely interwoven with the local administrative divisions and extensively involved in various aspects of the autonomous region's economic and social development. The Corps has earnestly implemented the Party' s ethnic and religious policies, performing public service and offering practical help to the people of various ethnic groups. As early as 1959, it formulated the Twenty-Article Outline Concerning Support to the Army and Love for the People for Sincerely Serving the People of Various Ethnic Groups. In 1984, shortly after it was restored, the XPCC launched a co-construction mechanism between its grassroots-level units and local villages. During their interactions, the Corps' agricultural production units have kept imparting new technology and new crop species to local farmers, helping all local ethnic minorities to gain prosperity. The Corps' medical institutions have kept making medical-aid tours to the local villages and pasturing areas all year round, delivering medicines, treating the sick and preventing diseases. The Corps' performing art troupes also bring free shows to the local peoples.

The XPCC workers live in peace and harmony as neighbors with people of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang; they share mutual support and assistance. The Corps has provided various public services not only to its workers, but also to the local people, attracting people from all ethnic groups of Xinjiang and various other parts of the country to work, study, seek medical care, and start businesses in the XPCC, thus promoting ethnic unity, unity between the Corps and local governments, and integrative development of both XPCC and the local society, facilitating the formation of interwoven social development model for Xinjiang's ethnic groups and laying down the social foundation for these ethnic groups to communicate and integrate. During the process of creating the unique XPCC culture, the Corps makes a due contribution to enriching the local cultures of Xinjiang by promoting cultural exchanges among the different peoples and enhancing their identity with the Chinese culture that features integrated diversity.

The XPCC has played a unique role in maintaining stability and defending border area. Always upholding principles of being both soldiers and civilians, and combining productive labor with military duties and the army with the people, the Corps has paid equal attention to productive work and military training; the hundreds of thousands of XPCC workers from 58 border regimental farms have guarded a 2,000-km section of China's borderlines to ensure the security of China' s northwestern borders. In the face of severe and complex threats to social stability in Xinjiang, the various divisions, regiments, companies, enterprises and public institutions under the XPCC have established an emergency-response militia contingent. The XPCC has played a unique and irreplaceable role in maintaining social stability in Xinjiang, quashing violent terrorist activities and safeguarding the public.

It is the Chinese government's strategic plan to administer state affairs and ensure national stability and an important strategy to strengthen frontier governance to form, support and develop the XPCC; it is a major institutional innovation in maintaining stability in Xinjiang, safeguarding ethnic unity and national unification, and developing the border area; and it is an effective mechanism for the central government to support the localities, the more developed inland areas to support border areas, and the various ethnic groups to render mutual assistance. After decades of development, XPCC-built cities and regiment-built towns have gradually developed into the regional economic and cultural hubs, where all sorts of resources converge - population, capital, industry, talent, education and healthcare.

Upholding the national interests as its own interests and overall situation of Xinjiang its foremost concern, the XPCC has remained a key force in developing and building Xinjiang and bringing benefits to people of all its ethnic groups, as well as in safeguarding national unification and maintaining stability in Xinjiang. As such, it has always enjoyed support and help from the region's governments at all levels and the people of all the ethnic groups. In view of the new conditions and prioritizing the overall goal of lasting stability and peace in Xinjiang, the XPCC will give full play to its role in adjusting the social structure, promoting cultural exchange and facilitating inter-district coordination, further boost its strength, deepen XPCC-Xinjiang integrative development, and endeavor to make still greater contributions to the development, progress, harmony and stability of Xinjiang.

IX. State Support and Assistance to Xinjiang

The CPC and the Chinese government have always attached great importance to the development of Xinjiang, and have continuously increased their support and assistance. Over the past 60 years, the state's financial grants to Xinjiang totaled almost RMB1.7 trillion. The state and other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have at different times provided support to Xinjiang in various forms, acting as a strong driving force to boost the region's economic and social development.

State support has laid the foundation for Xinjiang's development. From the founding of the autonomous region to the launch of the reform and opening-up drive, the state had, by way of job allocation and job transfer, encouraged intellectuals and technical professionals to go to work in Xinjiang, called on young adults, urban educated youth and workers in inland areas of the country to support frontier development and encouraged demobilized service people to stay in Xinjiang and assigned them jobs there, thus fostering a generation of builders who have been hard-working and pioneering and took roots in the border areas. They have made an invaluable contribution to Xinjiang's economic and social development, to the cultivation and defense of the border regions as well as national security.

The state has supported Xinjiang to boost its development by adopting quite a number of measures, such as checking and ratifying on a yearly basis its balance of total revenues and expenditures, and turning in to the state the surplus while having the deficiency to be made up by the central budget; raising the proportion of budget reserves for ethnic minority areas; implementing preferential policies for ethnic trade companies; and establishing various special funds like special allowance funds of education for ethnic minority areas, and ethnic minority area allowances. From 1955 to 1978, the state subsidized Xinjiang with RMB7.19 billion accumulatively. With hefty state funds, many major infrastructure and other industrial projects in the region have been completed, including the Lanzhou-Urumqi Railway and the Karamay and Tarim oilfields.

The state has strengthened both policy and financial support to Xinjiang. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, the state has kept intensifying efforts to support Xinjiang in such fields as economy, education, science and technology, culture, medical services, ecological and environmental protection, and finance. From 1980 to 1988, the central budget provided a quota subsidy to Xinjiang with an average yearly increase of 10 percent. In 1994, when the state introduced tax revenue-sharing between the central and local authorities, it maintained the previous policies of providing subsidies and special allocations to ethnic minority areas. When it adopted transitional transfer payments the following year, it added special provision concerning the policy of transfer payments to ethnic minority areas.

The state has guided and encouraged businesses to invest in Xinjiang, and provided greater investment and financial support to Xinjiang. In 2005, it initiated pairing-assistance to the four prefectures and the three divisions under the XPCC in southern Xinjiang. In 2007, it promulgated the Opinions of the State Council on Further Boosting Xinjiang's Economic and Social Development.

The state has also trained and provided talents for Xinjiang. In the 1980s, it initiated a cooperative program between Xinjiang and more than 100 institutions of higher learning in other parts of the country, with the total enrollment eventually growing from 800 to 6,800. By 2014, these institutions had enrolled, accumulatively, 54,000 students of ethnic minority origins from Xinjiang, in addition to providing the autonomous region with 21,000 undergraduates and junior college graduates. In 2000, the state launched a program encouraging senior high schools in hinterland areas of the country to hold classes of students from Xinjiang, so far enrolling in total 70,000 from Xinjiang, 38,000 of whom have graduated, with 95 percent continuing their studies in colleges located in the developed provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Since 2003, junior high school classes have been set up in some cities of Xinjiang, enrolling to date a total of 61,300 students from remote impoverished areas. Senior high school classes and secondary vocational classes were opened in 2011 in other parts of the country for Xinjiang students, which have thus far enrolled 13,200 students.

All of these senior-high-school and junior-high-school classes held in hinterland areas target mainly ethnic minority students from Xinjiang's farming and pasturing areas to offer them a better education. At present, more than 100,000 ethnic minority students are studying in nearly 600 schools in some 20 economically better developed provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions.

In 1996, the state began to extend support to Xinjiang's development by way of selecting and sending officials to work in Xinjiang. By 2014, it had sent eight complements numbering more than 11,000 officials and professionals. In 2004, a new initiative involved sending qualified professionals with doctor's degrees to work in the region. By 2014, 11 groups of 81 persons with doctor's degrees had gone and worked in the autonomous region through this project.

The state has also implemented a number of other talent training policies, such as selecting and appointing officials of ethnic minority origins to temporary posts in central government offices or in areas with better developed economy to get training; holding Xinjiang classes in inland higher-learning institutions and senior high schools; implementing such programs as the "Program for High-Caliber Personnel from Ethnic Minorities" and "Light of the West" for the training of visiting scholars; and giving special policy support to the development of higher-learning institutions located in the ethnic minority areas or the master's and doctor's degree granting centers of ethnic colleges and universities in terms of graduate enrollment size, etc.

The new round of pairing-assistance has yielded notable results. The First National Meeting on Pairing-Assistance to Xinjiang was held in March 2010. At the meeting, the central authorities decided to pair off 19 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government with 82 counties (cities) in 12 prefectures in Xinjiang and the 12 divisions of the XPCC to render support to the latter.

Moreover, the state has adopted a number of special policies to support Xinjiang's development, and these include: as of January 1,2015, ad valorem collection has been implemented for coal resources tax in Xinjiang at a rate of 6 percent; Xinjiang has been designated a key state-class comprehensive energy base and all-round efforts are called to improve the clean and efficient development, conversion and utilization of Xinjiang's energy resources; specific provisions have been made in eight aspects concerning officials and professionals coming to support Xinjiang's development, such as the scope and form of management authority, selection and rotation; a policy has been adopted to grant a two-year income tax exemption and three-year half pay for Xinjiang's enterprises listed in the "Catalog of Industries and Enterprises Enjoying Income Tax Preferences and Whose Development in Areas with Difficulties of Xinjiang (Trial)"; a policy covering 10 aspects of support to the two economic development zones in Kashi and Khorgos has been adopted; and differentiated industrial policies have been implemented for Xinjiang's 12 main industries.

The state's financial allowances to Xinjiang in the 2010-2014 period reached RMB1,061.65 billion, or a 1.68-fold increase over that in the 1955-2009 period, which stood at RMB630.15 billion. By the end of 2014, the 19 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, which have been involved in the pairing-assistance to Xinjiang, had provided RMB53.6 billion of funds and undertaken 4,906 aid projects in Xinjiang, in addition to even a larger number of so-called livelihood projects in terms of urban and rural housing improvement, personnel training, employment, public health and community organization, bringing tangible benefits to the local people and markedly enhancing the development of science, education, culture and public health as well as improvement of the situation in rural areas. Relying on the 6,482 cooperative projects brought by the provinces and municipalities rendering support to it, Xinjiang had brought in RMB827.7 billion of investment.

The Second Central Meeting on the Work of Xinjiang held in May 2014 proposed to adopt special policies in finance, investment, banking and personnel to mainly support the four prefectures in southern Xinjiang so as to further promote the coordinated development of different areas in Xinjiang.

Conclusion

Tremendous changes have taken place in Xinjiang over the past 60 years.

Under the firm leadership of the CPC and the central government, and with the generous support of the whole nation, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have unswervingly followed the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, pursued ethnic equality, unity and development, practiced the system of ethnic regional autonomy, and brought about enormous changes in all areas north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Experience has proved that the combination of centralized national leadership with ethnic regional autonomy, and the combination of ethnic factors with regional ones fully accord with the prevailing situation in China and with the realities and needs of Xinjiang. It is the basic premise behind the drive for equality, harmonious co-existence and development of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and serves as an important guarantee that these goals will be realized.

Today, Xinjiang is standing at a new starting point for development. As a key region on the Silk Road Economic Belt, it functions as a major window on China's opening to the west. It is a transportation hub that links the continents of Asia and Europe, and a center of business and trade, finance, cultural and scientific exchange, and medical services. The Second Central Meeting on the Work of Xinjiang formulated the strategy of "governing Xinjiang in accordance with the law, stabilizing Xinjiang with unity, and building Xinjiang with a long-term goal." The people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang will seize this precious opportunity to unite their efforts in pursuit of further historic achievements.

To build a beautiful Xinjiang with efforts of all ethnic groups and realize the Chinese Dream is the common aspiration of the whole nation, including all the peoples of Xinjiang. A brighter future beckons.