Xiarepati Tusun, Teacher of College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Xinjiang Institute of Engineering

I have learned from the news that the former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been trying his best to discredit and slander China before his resignation. What’s worse, he declared that Xinjiang’s policies toward Muslims and ethnic minorities committed “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”. As an educator of ethnic minority who has been trained by the CPC and the state for years, I strongly condemn and firmly oppose Pompeo’s remarks.

I was born in a family of two generations of intellectuals in Shache County, Kashgar Prefecture. My neighbors consisted of Uygur, Han, Hui, Tajik, etc., and we all lived in harmony. I had fun, played, studied, celebrated festivals and grew up with children of different ethnic groups.

I grew up in a muti-ethnic family all along. My Putonghua teacher in primary school was Hui while the Putonghua teacher in high school was Han. When I was in university, I was carefully cultivated by teachers of various ethnics, and I was exempted from the examination and recommended to become a graduate student. My doctoral supervisor, a young overseas post-doctor, was also a Han. The teachers have never despised me because I am an ethnic minority. On the contrary, I would have made no progress without the support, help and encouragement from teachers and peers of all ethnics, and I would not have done it without the good policies of the country.

Now, I have become a backbone teacher of Xinjiang Institute of Engineering, and I feel the state has been attaching more and more importance to education cause of Xinjiang. More and more minority students receive the opportunity to enter the university for higher education, and minority talents have acquired a development space that is more advanced and broader. School leaders and teachers of all ethnic groups in our college are deeply concerned about the education of students of ethnic minorities. They also attach great importance to students’ daily life and employment. In addition, they will celebrate every festival with students. Seven years of working in the college gave me a better understanding of the state's attention, care and support for Xinjiang. If it had not been for the preferential policies of the state and the concern of governments at all levels for the ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang would have not been able to live a happy life.

In 2018, my husband went to Moyu County in Hotan Prefecture to take part in the work of poverty alleviation on behalf of our school. He told me a lot about the benefits that the national policies of benefiting the people had brought to the people of all ethnic groups in Moyu county. The most moving part was that the policies of benefiting people in Xinjiang covered all aspects of people's production and life like medical care, pension, housing, education, poverty alleviation, employment and so on. In order to solve the problem of poverty in Xinjiang, especially the poverty in southern Xinjiang, the government has strengthened employment assistance to help people achieve stable employment and increase their income; and the government has provided the subsidies for development of animal husbandry in southern Xinjiang to ensure that the income of family animal husbandry increased to 10,000 yuan. The state also assigned experts to guide the families in southern Xinjiang to arrange the courtyards reasonably so as to improve the economic benefits of the courtyard, which allowed small courtyards to play a big role in economic development.

As a Uygur teacher who has been trained and educated by the party and the state for years, I always believe that without a strong nation, we will not be living a happy life today, let alone the growth and progress of our minority youth. I am the beneficiary of the national policies, and I have boundless gratitude for the party and the motherland.

I believe that every high-level minority talent growing up in Xinjiang is a witness to the development of education in Xinjiang, and a man so far away from us has no right to make any comment about us. Pompeo "cares" for Xinjiang Uygur people under the disguise of "protecting human rights", which was aimed to sow dissension among various ethnic groups, destroy our good life and prevent us from further development. His crazy and shameful actions are contrary to the will of people so he is doomed to fail!