Poverty relief efforts

Thanks to a local government initiative to increase the income of villagers with insufficient farmland, the yearly income of Abdulyokem's family increased to 100,000 yuan in 2019 by raising cows and pigeons.

Poverty eradication in Xinjiang has also witnessed remarkable achievements. By 2019, more than 2.92 million people had been lifted out of poverty in the region, accounting for more than 10 percent of its population.

At the symposium, Xi called for efforts to improve mechanisms to prevent people who have been lifted out of poverty from becoming poor again and help them develop sustainably, and to strengthen the synergy between poverty elimination and the rural vitalization strategy.

In mid-September, China released a white paper titled "Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang", which said that through proactive labor and employment policies, the region has continuously improved people's lives and guaranteed and developed their human rights in every field.

Musarjan Nurdun, Party secretary of Tuowankewen, a village in Yining county, said people's sense of security and gain has been significantly boosted in recent years. Now people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang understand the importance of social stability as they have all benefited from it, he said.

Ma Pinyan, a researcher at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said Xi's remark about increasing the sense of the identity of the Chinese nation is crucial in achieving lasting stability in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, making the region prosper is particularly important when its economy is likely to suffer from sanctions imposed by some countries, he said.

Despite the constant and groundless attacks on Xinjiang's effective efforts to combat religious extremism and terrorism by certain Western countries and media, the region has successfully curbed the spread of religious extremism and the frequent occurrence of terrorist attacks since 2014, Ma said.

"We should be confident when telling the world about the changes in Xinjiang because slandering China's policies on Xinjiang will always be a political tool for some, and Xinjiang's prosperity and stability are the last things they want to see," he said.