Xinjiang progress lays foundation for rights

Social and economic development in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has laid a solid foundation for the region’s human rights development and promoted the comprehensive protection of human rights, said experts attending an online meeting on March 18.

The meeting was a side event at the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland and the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

According to Xinjiang’s statistics bureau, the gross domestic product in Xinjiang reached 1.59 trillion yuan ($251 billion) in 2021, up 7 percent year-on-year, and the per capita disposable income of residents in the region was 26,075 yuan, an increase of 9.4 percent over the previous year.