In Xinjiang, China’s top political adviser Wang Huning calls for ‘correct historical view’ of Chinese nation
- ‘Social stability of Xinjiang was hard-earned’, Wang Huning says, urging officials to ensure all ethnic groups ‘stick together like pomegranate seeds’
- Comments from former ideology tsar come during three-day inspection trip to ethnically diverse far-western region
The comments from Wang Huning, who took over as chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in March, came as he completed a three-day inspection trip to the ethnically diverse far-western region on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The aim was to get a clearer picture of progress in promoting ethnic unity, religious policy implementation, grass-root level governance, and the lives of ordinary people, Xinhua said.
Apart from the capital Urumqi and major cities like Kashgar, Wang was also reported to have visited several rural communities, schools, mosques and businesses.
“The social stability of Xinjiang was hard-earned. It must be cherished and fully consolidated,” Wang was quoted as saying in Kashgar.
“[Officials should] continue to do a good job to unite people, so that people of all ethnic groups will stick together like pomegranate seeds,” he added, referencing an often-repeated metaphor about unity among China’s 56 ethnic groups.
In Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city with a history going back thousands of years, Wang stopped over at a local police station, the Id Kah Mosque – China’s largest and one of the largest in Central Asia – as well as the village of Mangan.
Mangan, which once struggled below the poverty line, has been transformed into a “star village” over the past nine years, according to Chinese state media. Local news reports hold it up as a model for social stability, economic development, ethnic unity and rural revitalisation.
“We must solidify the correct historical view of the Chinese nation, and plant the seeds of patriotism into everyone, especially the teenagers,” Wang said in Urumqi, where he visited a museum, the Xinjiang Islamic Institute, Xinjiang University and some local enterprises.
Maintaining long-term stability was the top priority for Xinjiang, and the region should unswervingly promote the normalisation of anti-terrorism efforts, added Wang, who ranks at No 4 in the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of the party’s power structure.
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Social stability and public order are China’s top priorities for Xinjiang – once a restive region witness to waves of deadly ethnic violence, and terror attacks blamed on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement separatist group.
Both Xinjiang and Tibet have been subject to central policies to assimilate minority cultures into those of the Han, as well as crackdowns on religious practices not endorsed by the state.
