Ablikim Alawudun, Institute of Philosophy, Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences

On January 19, the last day of the Trump administration, Mike Pompeo, former US Secretary of State, took his doomsday madness to the extreme, slandering Xinjiang for committing “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” against the Uygur ethnic minorities and other religious minorities. Such nonsense, which cannot stand any scrutiny, is the “doomsday madness” of Pompeo's anti-China rebellion, and it is destined to be swept into the garbage of history. As a Uygur intellectual, I am extremely angry with Pompeo's garbage lies and express my firm opposition.

Since the founding of New China on October 1, 1949, Xinjiang has made unprecedented achievements in economic and social development and in improvement of people's livelihood. Especially in recent years, the CPC Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has resolutely implemented the important instructions of President Xi Jinping on Xinjiang’s work to improve economic development and people’s livelihood to the strategic level of stabilizing Xinjiang, to promote the high-quality development of Xinjiang’s economy. In order to improve people’s livelihood, benefit the local area and promote unity of all ethnic groups, more than 70% of fiscal expenditures have been used to guarantee and improve people’s livelihood for many years, and continue to promote projects that benefit the people focusing on employment, education, health care, social security and housing. Xinjiang’s economic development continues to improve, people's living standards have improved significantly, decisive achievements have been made in poverty alleviation. At present, all impoverished counties in the four prefectures of South Xinjiang have been lifted out of poverty. The problem of “two no worries and three guarantees” for Uygur compatriots has been resolved. Children from impoverished Uygur families who have dropped out of school due to poverty have returned to school for compulsory education. The impoverished people have participated in medical insurance, with 100% participation rate of serious illnesses. And the people of all ethnic groups enjoy a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

From 2017 to 2019, I was stationed in Mitiz Village, Langru Township, Hotan County, Xinjiang for more than three years, and I personally experienced the poverty alleviation experience and social changes of Uygur compatriots in South Xinjiang. Our village, Mitizi, is located in the depths of the Kunlun Mountains, more than 150 kilometers away from Hotan County, with more than 360 households of Uygur villagers. In the past, villagers had few access to electricity, communications, medical treatment and education, their lives were monotonous. The transportation is especially inconvenient. It took a week to go down and up the mountain and the transportation is donkeys. Benefiting from the national policy of “targeted poverty alleviation”, the overall economic and social outlook of the village has undergone tremendous changes: the old narrow path leading to the pastures in the depths of the Kunlun Mountains has been replaced by a wide asphalt road, and the affordable houses for the villagers have been built in and outside the mountains; Solar street lamps have been installed in the residential areas of the mountain, and the government has distributed free TV sets and solar power generation equipment to every villager so that the they can watch TV programs at their homes of Four Seasons Ranch; Children go to the boarding schools in the township, which solves the problem of children's education that parents are concerned about in mountainous areas. The villagers no longer worry about transportation, communication, medical treatment and school. These are all facts. Without the good national policies, there would be no today’s happy life of Uygur compatriots in Mitizi Village or all of Xinjiang!

I would like to tell Mike Pompeo that we, Uygurs, have the best say in China's policy on ethnic minorities. All your doomsday huffs and puffs are groundless lies.