No scheme to assimilate Uygurs

I was at Urumqi airport for a flight to Shanghai at 18:30 on July 5, as an escort for a group from the United States. Our four-day visit to Urumqi and Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was most informative and interesting. We were basking in the joy of the trip and unaware of the creeping danger in other parts of the regional capital.

I am not writing about the riot though. What I want to share is my experience in Kashgar where I keenly felt that what had been reported and perceived in foreign countries was so different from the real pictures in China.

It was my second visit to Kashgar, a beautiful yet different place in China's northwest. More than 90 percent of the local population is ethnic Uygur. The ethnic Han like me are a minority. Yet every time I traveled to the city, I was overwhelmed by the warmth and friendship of our Uygur brothers and sisters. Never would I doubt that the Uygurs and Han people are from the same big family, no matter how different our customs and appearances may be.