Zulukumar Kuerban,Xinjiang Broadcasting and Television Station

Recently, Mike Pompeo made a series of false and vicious remarks on Xinjiang, ignoring the facts and attempting to instigate tension among ethnic groups and to tamper Xinjiang’s development. His shameless and evil purpose makes people so indignant. As a Uygur journalist, I would like to disclose your malicious lies with irrefutable facts.

I was born into a Uygur family of intellectuals in Urumqi. I and my younger brother both are graduated from Xinjiang University. After graduation, I made my dream come true and became a broadcasting journalist. My younger brother works as an editor in a publishing house after graduation. Either in study or in work, we do things with our own will and plan and there is no one to interfere us.

Whether Xinjiang is developing well or otherwise, the people who are living here are the best qualified to speak on it. Over the years, the Party and government pay great attention to the ethnic minority group education in Xinjiang. More and more ethnic students went to college and universities to enjoy higher education and there are more spaces for ethnic professionals to develop their talents. As for my college classmates, some of them work in government departments, some of them start businesses of their own and some of them work in Xinjiang University after studying abroad for master’s or doctor’s degrees. We are doing well with our job or work and we are having happy families with us. It is with the excellent policies from the government that we own this sense of achievement, happiness and security, which are as “real” as can be seen and touched.

My husband was born in Kashgar in southern Xinjiang and many of our relatives and friends work in the local villages or towns. When talking about the changes happening in their home towns, they express their feelings from the bottom of their hearts: the changes are earth-shaking. The education for children is free, there is medical insurance to make sure that one has to pay very little or does not pay at all when one is ill, and if you want to find a job there is employment insurance. When one goes somewhere to work, one is signing the contract with the company or factory with free will, according to law and rules. You can choose the job you like and it is up to you absolutely to decide where to work.

As a journalist, I traveled in many places and I witnessed the great changes and progress happening in both northern and southern Tianshan Mountains. I also witnessed that the Party and government make every effort to improve people’s living and to help all ethnic groups to increase their income and improve their cultural level. I was assigned the task of helping and supporting a Uygur villager called Maimaitituoheti Maimaitituerdi in Aziganbage Village, Muji Town, Pishan County, Hetian. With the excellent policies from the Party and government, he and his family moved in to the beneficiary house. He started business in growing up economic plants and raising cattle and sheep. For each year the income is increasing. When his son Abulimiti Maimaitituoheti saw that some of the young people in village went to inland cities to work with high salary, he was moved and started to learn the skill of making naan (a special local food) in the county and after he mastered the skill he went to Shanghai to start his own business. With the money accumulated in Shanghai, he went to Chongqing and started a barbecue restaurant with Xinjiang flavor. The business is prosperous. Later he asked his younger brother to help and work together. Pompeo, please open wide your eyes and look at the great efforts made by these Xinjiang people on their way to well-fare by working hard! But you just ignored them! You ignored the reality that all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are working by their own will to create their beautiful and happy life. Once and again you confounded right and wrong, wantonly smearing and slandering Xinjiang. Your evil purpose is as bare as the sun ray in a broad day!

Facts speak louder than words and justice is in the hearts of fair people. Pompeo, your malicious lies can not stop the progress and development of Xinjiang at all. It can only make all ethnic groups in Xinjiang cherish more and more the brilliant picture that Xinjiang has today. We are more and more resolute in our efforts in firmly maintain national unity and ethnic integrity. Where there is a will, there is a way! With that tireless efforts and strong will, we, Xinjiang people, are creating our own wonderful and happy tomorrow!