Skandan Keyoumu, Head of Yiwu County, Hami City

Days ago, Pompeo, for his own political self-interest, openly released lies related to Xinjiang, deliberately smearing the good situation and the happy life of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. He falsely accused Xinjiang of “genocide” and thoroughly exposed his ugly nature of taking “lying, cheating and stealing” as his life creed. His shameful behavior is a violation of international law and international relations. It is a serious interference in China’s internal affairs and a malicious provocation of ethnic dissensions in Xinjiang. It is extremely evil in nature and has a very sinister intention. In order to prevent the people of the world from being deceived, as a Uygur official and party member working and living in Yiwu, and as a participant, witness and beneficiary of Xinjiang’s stable development, I firmly oppose and strongly condemn Pompeo’s ugly behavior.

Pompeo’s publication of fallacies about Xinjiang such as “genocide” in Xinjiang is purely personal imagination and complete nonsense. Taking Yiwu County as an example, in this small border county, people of all ethnic groups enjoy policies that are comparable to those of developed cities in the inland, such as education, employment, medical care and pension. We have spent 75% of the total expenditure of local public finance on the construction of people’s livelihood for 10 consecutive years. The poor people in the county have been lifted out of poverty, and the per capita net income is far higher than the average level of Xinjiang. In particular, in the past five years, we have implemented educational subsidy policies such as “three exemptions and one subsidy” and “free sunshine lunch” for poor students in schools, and purchased advanced medical equipment such as nuclear magnetic resonance, CT and biochemical detection. We have guided farmers and herdsmen to “put down sheep whip and enter the workshop”, invested 25 million yuan to expand rural happy compound for senior citizens, and completed the reconstruction of affordable housing, shanty towns and dangerous houses. More than 2000 houses have been set up. We have guaranteed that every family can enjoy education, medical treatment and housing policy and that the elderly are free of worries in their life. The happiness index of the masses has been continuously rising. Obviously, the lie of “genocide” can not stand scrutiny and is smashed by the facts. For example, Azhati Hashan, a villager of Qianshan Township, has been engaged in breeding industry by enjoying the policies of benefiting the people such as small loans granted by the government. Now he has dozens of cattle and sheep. His family’s annual income has increased from several thousand yuan to 40, 000 yuan, and his living standard has improved significantly. Now he praises the Party’s good policies to everyone. He said that the government led by the Communist Party of China is the one that really does practical things for the common people and that it is the government led by the Communist Party of China that helps him live a happy new life. Such examples are abound everywhere. It has been proved by the facts that lies can never hide the light of truth.

Xinjiang has always attached great importance to the preservation and inheritance of the excellent culture of ethnic groups and has successively promulgated and implemented the regulations on the protection of intangible cultural heritage in Xinjiang and the regulations on the protection of Muqam art in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance Center has been built in Hami. Muqam Orchestra in Xiamaya township of Yiwu County, as the inheritor of Muqam art, has been invited to Beijing and other places for many times and their performance is popular with audiences of all ethnic groups in China. Yiwu County adheres to the combination of industrial development and national embroidery culture inheritance, actively introduces national embroidery enterprises, and creates four embroidery industry processing spots in the whole county, realizing the double harvest of cultural promotion and economic benefits. The development of ethnic cultural undertakings is becoming an important part of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. All these prove that the so-called “genocide” is sheer nonsense.

Here, I would like to warn Pompeo that all your hypocritical and ugly plots of smearing Xinjiang will eventually be despised by the world, and your attempt to undermine the prosperity and social stability of Xinjiang and curb China’s development will eventually become the laughing stock of the world.