Xinjiang had been known as the Western Regions in China and governed by different dynasties for roughly 2,000 years. Throughout this long history, a key feature of its administration has been the respect for the customs of local ethnic groups.
In 1955, six years after the People's Republic of China was founded, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established as part of the country's efforts to promote equality, unity and mutual assistance among the country's 56 ethnic groups.
The Han people make up some 91 percent of China's population; the 55 other ethnic groups are collectively known as the ethnic minorities. In ethnic autonomous areas, local people's congresses are the state organs through which they exercise self-governance. These legislatures can formulate autonomous regulations and local-specific laws. A major principle of this system is that the head of an autonomous area must belong to its namesake ethnic group. For instance, the government chairperson of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region must always be a Uygur.
Since the region's establishment 70 years ago, this vast, ethnically diverse place has undergone a transformation that few could have imagined back then. In the 1950s, the first major change came about through the exploration of energy resources. With the development of the Karamay oilfield, the first large oilfield discovered after the founding of the People's Republic, Xinjiang began supplying crude oil to the nation. Coalmines, natural gas deposits and, more recently, massive wind and solar farms have turned the region into an energy powerhouse. Other economic pillars, including agriculture, have also been revolutionized. While traditional oasis farming once depended on manual and animal labor, modern systems make use of drip irrigation, mechanized planting and harvesting, and high-yield seed varieties.
Social progress has kept pace with economic growth. In November 2020, Xinjiang announced it had eliminated absolute poverty, following a targeted poverty alleviation campaign that began in the early 2010s together with other parts of China.
Xinjiang's journey since 1955 illustrates how coordinated efforts to promote ethnic solidarity, energize the economy and upgrade social welfare can transform an underdeveloped hinterland into a frontier of opening up and development. Today, the region is better equipped than ever to sustain its upward trajectory and play a greater part in China's national rejuvenation drive.
