Stability, development transform Xinjiang

Xinjiang today is embracing its best period in history with social stability, economic development, ethnic unity, religious harmony and people from different ethnic groups living a happy life. This was the message officials from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region delivered at a State Council Information Office news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Indeed, since the founding of new China seven decades ago, Xinjiang, home to 25 million Chinese of 47 ethnic groups, has witnessed profound changes and achieved huge progress. Statistics show the region's total economic volume increased 8.3 percent a year on average from 1952 to 2018. Last year, the region's imports and exports amounted to $20 billion, which was 1,481 times the figure in 1950.

The region has also done an impressive work in eliminating abject poverty, especially between 2014 to 2018 when it saw an accumulative 2.31 million people lifted out of poverty. Next year, Xinjiang will join hands with other parts of the country in reaching the goal of completely eliminating poverty. Beautiful, prosperous and now stable, Xinjiang appeals to a growing number of domestic and international tourists. In 2018, Xinjiang hosted more than 150 million visitors from both home and abroad, and the figure is projected to reach 200 million this year.