A Wonderful Land
Our Xinjiang is a wonderful land. This is not only a song that is popular throughout China, but also reflects the real situation of Xinjiang’s development in the past decades. Situated in northwest China, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region boasts rich tourism resources, abundant natural resources, big market and vibrant agricultural and industrial development.
Xinjiang’s development is based on its natural conditions and geographic position. Thanks to its abundant wind and solar resources, the region is now an important place for China’s energy development with the mission of ensuring China’s energy security. At the foot of Tianshan Mountains, numerous wind turbines stand high, rotating against the wind; in the vast Gobi Desert, rows of photovoltaic panels sit on shelves, facing the sun and continuously generating electricity by utilising endless solar resource; the towering transmission towers and soaring transmission lines form “corridors in the air,” sending green power to millions of homes.
Statistics show that the newly added installed new-energy capacity within the autonomous region in 2023 reached 22.51 million kw, a 5.6-fold growth compared with the previous year. Currently, its accumulative new energy capacity has hit 64.43 million kw. With a dozen 10-million-kw large wind and photovoltaic power bases built in Hami, Kashgar and other places, Xinjiang ranks No.1 in terms of installed new energy capacity in northwest China.
Xinjiang also has abundant fossil energy resources, serving as China’s large bases of oil and gas processing and storage, as well as coal mining, coal-powered electricity and coal chemical industry. It is also an important land channel for national energy and resources transportation.
Owing to rich sunshine, Xinjiang is a key region for agricultural development. In 2023, grain growing area in the region reached 42.37 million mu (2.82 million hectares) with grain production of 21.19 million tonnes, ranking first nationwide in both grain acreage and production.
Cotton is the most representative cash crop in the region. With its high-quality, long-staple cotton enjoying high reputation worldwide, Xinjiang is the main supplier to the world’s top fabric companies. The local government has guided local farmers to abandon low-quality cotton varieties and turn to long-staple cotton. In 2023, cotton production in the region reached 5.11 million tonnes, accounting for 91 percent of China’s total cotton production.
Xinjiang is also a melting pot of various ethnic groups. More than 25 million people from each of China’s 56 ethnic groups live on its vast 1.66 million square kilometres.
Despite the huge development made in Xinjiang in the past years, Western media still throws dirty water on Xinjiang in the name of ethnicity, religion and human rights. But actually, the problems Xinjiang faces are terrorism and secession. It is a question of national unity or division, peace or violence, and justice or evil.
Thanks to the rapid development in Xinjiang, which has greatly improved people’s livelihood, terrorist attacks have disappeared, and terrorist groups such as the so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement can no longer penetrate into the region. With a peaceful environment, people of various ethnic groups there can enjoy their happy life and live together in harmony. Xinjiang stands as tangible evidence of the pivotal role development plays in advancing human rights.