After I moved to Beijing in 2015, Chinese friends brought me to a restaurant of a Uygur family to try the typical food of Xinjiang. Brazilians love barbecue and Xinjiang has not only the best barbecue in China, but also many other delicious dishes, including noodles, pilaf, yogurt and nang, so I became a fan of Xinjiang cuisine.

In China, it’s very common to see people gathering outdoors to dance, and on many occasions, I found groups of people dancing typical dances from Xinjiang in Beijing public parks. Some of the dancers even like to wear a Doppa cap.

I quickly noticed that people in China love the Uygurs, so I was shocked when I heard the first rumors about human rights violations in Xinjiang: that couldn’t be true. As the accusations escalated, I noticed interesting patterns: sometimes the Uygurs were shown as an ethnic group, sometimes as a religious group, and some reports also mentioned other ethnic groups of Xinjiang. Obviously, different narratives were being tested to see which of them could cause more damage to the public image of China.

The winner of that bizarre contest was the narrative of forced labor, because of its potential to weaken China’s economy. Under pressure, many foreign companies stopped buying from or producing in Xinjiang.

Because of those narratives, while walking on the streets or visiting companies in that region of China, I always paid special attention to the working environment and interactions between people from different ethnic groups, in order to show the truth to my readers.

In every company I visited in Xinjiang, I saw people from different ethnic groups working together in the same function and wearing the same uniforms and protective equipments. There is no signal of ethnic discrimination. Many factories in Xinjiang are highly automated, some even make use of 5G and IoT technologies. Demanding workforce with technical skills is incompatible with forced labour.

In 2017, I visited a truck factory in Jinan, east China’s Shandong Province, and this year, I visited another one in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Even though those factories belong to different companies and are in opposite sides of the Chinese map, the number of workers, working environment and working conditions are basically the same.

Also this year, I visited greenhouses in Nanjing, Shanghai and Urumqi, where tomatoes are grown under controlled conditions making use of new farming technologies. Obviously, there are technical differences between those greenhouses, but they all produce high-quality and delicious tomatoes. Again, I found no significant difference between Xinjiang and eastern China.

Especially about the cotton industry, old reports and documents prove that, in the past, migrant workers used to go to Xinjiang to pick cotton during harvest season, revealing a lack of local workforce and a demand for mechanized harvesting. Nowadays, cotton picking machines are produced by CRCHI Xinjiang Co., Ltd., in Urumqi. During my visit to this company in 2021, I was told that a single machine does the work of 1,200 men. Make the calculus and you will realize it’s cheaper than forced labour!

But what impressed me the most in Xinjiang was the great work done in poverty alleviation. I visited some of the last villages and districts lifted up from absolute poverty and was touched by the stories told by local people about their lives. Even in rural areas, I saw people living in safe houses with tap water, electricity and internet.

I agree that life in Xinjiang is not yet as convenient as in Beijing or Shanghai, but it’s much more convenient than it was some decades ago. Kashi is a great example of this transformation. In the 90’s, the city was famous for its mini donkeys used to carry people and pull carts. During my recent visit to Kashi, I did not see a single donkey: people now use cars, motorcycles and tricycles for their daily needs.

All Chinese citizens, regardless of ethnic group, language, religion or place of birth, are considered as part of the same people and should not be left behind. As a consequence of this feeling, a big portion of the tax income of the more developed areas of China is transferred to the central government to be distributed to the less developed areas, like Xinjiang. Also, more developed cities in China usually create partnerships to help the less developed ones by sharing expertise and boosting exchanges.

Meanwhile, in most foreign countries, governments of rich cities and provinces usually argue they contribute more for the country’s GDP, thus they deserve more investments and privilleges.

Three years ago, during my visit to Yongku Tuanjie Village, in Kuqa City, Aksu Prefecture of Xinjiang, I was told an amazing story about people’s unity. Decades ago, people from five ethnic groups moved to that place to help local Uygurs to transform the desert into farmlands. Now the village is surrounded by farms, most of them producing pomegranate, and local poverty was erradicated with help from Ningbo, a city in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

In Zhejiang Province, I was fascinated by Tiantai Mountains, the birthplace of Hehe (or harmonius coexistence) Culture. This ancient Chinese concept with more than 1,800 years is at the same time simple and deep, promoting the values of peace, solidarity and tolerance. When learning about Hehe Culture, I noticed it shares the same essential values of Xinjiang’s Silk Road Spirit. Tianshan Mountains and Tiantai Mountains are much closer than people usually suppose.

This year, while visiting Kashi, I saw a carpet showing a pomegranate flower surrounded by other 56 flowers. Together they represent the union of China’s 56 ethnic groups around the motherland. The pomegranate flowers made me think about Yongku Tuanjie Village and the support they received from Ningbo to leave poverty behind.

Another lesson I learned in Xinjiang is about the importance of diversity. In Xinjiang Arts University, I saw students from different ethnic groups playing traditional musical instruments. Each instrument alone can produce a beautiful melody, but different instruments together can make the music much more vivid and colorful.

United as a cluster of pomegranate seeds, the 56 ethnic groups of China are building together a prosperous future.

(Rafael Henrique Zerbetto is a foreign editor at the Asia-Pacific Center of China International Communications Group.)

Planner: Jie Wenjin

Reviewers: Hou Weili and Cheng Li