China's State Council Information Office on Friday released a white paper titled "CPC Guidelines for Governing Xinjiang in the New Era: Practice and Achievements." Here are some key takeaways from the document.

Strong foundations for stability, peace and security

- While balancing development and security, Xinjiang has maintained social stability as a top priority.

- It has continued to fight terrorism and maintain stability in a law-based and regular manner, preventing and defusing risks in various fields, as well as interference and sabotage by external forces.

- A historic transformation from chaos to stability and from stability to governance has been achieved in the region...Read more

Protection of languages of all ethnic groups

- China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region respects and protects ethnic minorities' right to learn and use their own spoken and written languages.

- The regional government takes a sound approach to protecting the spoken and written languages of all ethnic groups, and encourages them to learn languages from each other...Read more

Guarantee of religious freedom

- China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region fully, accurately, and faithfully implements the Communist Party of China's policy on freedom of religious belief by respecting people's religious beliefs.

- Xinjiang administers religious affairs in accordance with the law, allows religious groups to manage their own affairs independently, and guides religions to be compatible with socialist society...Read more

Improvements in infrastructure

- The region has made overall planning for the construction of 10 networks covering railways, highways, aviation, power, natural gas, logistics and computing.

- The operating mileage of railways totaled 9,202 km as of 2024, up from 4,914 km in 2012. The highway network has also grown, from 165,900 km in 2012 to 230,000 km in 2024. The number of civil air routes in Xinjiang now totals 595. All counties in Xinjiang are connected with 1000M fiber optic networks, towns with 5G networks, and villages with broadband networks...Read more

Battle against desertification

- The Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang is now entirely encircled with a sand-blocking green belt stretching 3,046 km -- the longest in the world.

- The forest coverage rate of Xinjiang has increased from 4.24 percent in 2012 to 5.07 percent in 2024. Oasis area has expanded by 56.6 percent over the past three decades...Read more

Gateway for opening up to the west

- Xinjiang aims to build a golden channel across the Eurasian continent and a gateway for opening up to the west.

- Xinjiang has established 19 ports, including the Kunjirap Port, which is open all year round.

- A total of 16,400 freight trains traveled through Xinjiang on the China-Europe Railway Express in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year that the number of trains on the line had exceeded 10,000.

- China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone was approved and set up in October 2023. Over the following year, more than 9,000 enterprises moved into the Zone, whose total import and export value accounted for over 30 percent of the region's total...Read more

Protection of cultural heritage

- By 2024, Xinjiang was home to 195 institutions of cultural heritage protection at all levels, had 150 registered museums, and boasted 9,545 verified and registered immovable cultural relics, among which six were world cultural heritage sites and 133 were key cultural relics sites under national-level protection.

- Xinjiang also boasts three intangible cultural heritage items on the list of the UNESCO, 141 items on the national representative list and 567 items on the list of the autonomous region...Read more

Rise of average life expectancy

- The average life expectancy of residents in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region rose from 30 years in 1949 to 77 years in 2024.

- Local patients can now obtain treatment for everyday health issues at the community level, for common illnesses in counties and prefectures, and for serious diseases within the region...Read more

Central government support

- Since 2012, the central government of China has allocated more than 4 trillion yuan (about 562.3 billion U.S. dollars) in transfer payments to Xinjiang, including nearly 543.48 billion yuan in 2024 alone...Read more