Amina Yiming, vice president of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University

While we were leaving the past year, meeting the new year with our relatives and friends, and enjoying ourselves in our happy life, Pompeo, the former US Secretary of State published a series of fallacies, attacking and discrediting Xinjiang on groundless basis. It can never be tolerated! As a native of Xinjiang and a Uygur intellectual, I will never allow a liar to slander my beloved hometown wantonly. I will restore a real Xinjiang with my own experience and slap this shameless man in the face. All kinds of lies and poison you spread will eventually be swept into the garbage heap of history!

I was born in the beautiful Altay. My father was an ordinary miner, my mother stayed at home as a housekeeper, and there are four children in my family. In our childhood, we grew up in a courtyard with friends of all ethnic groups. We belong to the generation of 1970s, who grew up, singing together “56 ethnic groups are 56 flowers, and 56 brothers and sisters are in one family...”. We are the “pomegranate seeds tightly holding together”, which is visible everywhere in Xinjiang. It is also a miniature of Xinjiang’s ethnic unity. When I was a child, my parents were busy with their work. So the children of the similar age formed study groups to help each other and made progress together. We were like brothers and sisters. At that time, every household was not locked, and it was normal for people to visit each other and exchange what they needed. On my way of growing up, in addition to these brothers and sisters, there were teachers’ encouragement and help. I remember when I was in junior high school, my physics teacher and chemistry teacher often offered to come to my home to give me free tuition. When I was in High school, my class teacher Miss Zhao Xiumei gave me a lot of care in my study and life. Every holiday, Miss Zhao would make jiaozi at home to give us a chance to taste delicious food. With her meticulous care and encouragement, I was admitted to Xinjiang Medical University. Mr. Pompeo, is this what you called “human rights violation”?!

In October 1995, I came to the College of traditional Chinese medicine of Xinjiang Medical University with excitement and formed a new big family with Han, Kazak, Mongolian and Xibe students from all over Xinjiang. However, in the first semester, my mother and father died one after another, which broke my good life. At that time, considering the cost of study and living in the future, I decided to drop out because I didn’t want to increase the burden on my two elder sisters and brother. In that difficult time, my head teacher and a student representative came to my home and brought me a letter from five dormitories of my class and 39 classmates. In the letter, my classmates encouraged me to cheer up and not to give up my studies and they would help me tide over the difficulties. The head teacher also brought the good news that the college would give me a financial aid in hope that I could go back to the campus to continue my study. With all these I finally finished my university studies and have what I have today. I would like to ask Mr. Pompeo again, is this what you called “against humanity” and “genocide”?!

From 2017 to 2019, I was in charge of poverty alleviation work in Xinjiang Medical University, and witnessed the poverty alleviation and prosperity of villagers in poor area. Zhawa Town, Moyu County, Hotan Prefecture, due to its geographical disadvantage, meagre farmland and large population, villagers choose to go out to work all the year round for their livelihood, but most of them are construction workers and the employment is not stable. In order to effectively solve the problem of villagers’ employment, the Party committee of Xinjiang Medical University has set up nearly 1000 posts in the whole university and formulated the post recruitment plan and salary standard. After extensive publicity among local villagers, the number of applicants far exceeded our expectations. After systematic on-the-job training, these villagers became employees of Xinjiang Medical University with equal pay for equal work. The Party committee of the university provided them with free dormitories and they can have meals in the school canteen like other staff. In order to completely relieve their worries, the Party committee of the university considered the housing problem of couples and their posts, and effectively solved the problems. And the problem of their children’s schooling was also solved. At the same time, according to the actual needs of the villagers, nearly one million yuan was spent to provide a free vocational training for chefs lasting half a year. Those who are willing to stay on campus to continue their work in the campus canteen can stay on the campus, and those who are willing to return home can return home to start their own business. After nearly three years of labor force training for poor families and a series of powerful measures to transfer employment, eight villages in Zhawa town of Moyu county have been successfully lifted out of poverty. The villagers’ faces are always wearing happy smiles. I would like to ask Mr. Pompeo again, is this what you called “forced labor”?!

My story is just one of a thousand of stories in Xinjiang. This is what Xinjiang is! I believe that every Xinjiang person living on this fascinating land must have the same feeling as mine, that is, Xinjiang has undergone great changes, and has made unprecedented achievements in economic and social development, improvement of people’s livelihood, and protection of human rights. All the places around Tianshan Mountains are showing a good situation of social stability, economic prosperity, and people living and working in peace and contentment. Such a stable and peaceful situation in Xinjiang will certainly expose Pompeo’s lies to the whole world and Pompeo is bound to be nailed to the historical pillar of shame, stinking permanently!