Aerial photo taken on Sept. 26, 2022 shows a cotton picker working in fields in Xayar County, Aksu Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The cotton harvest season has started in Xayar County of Xinjiang.(Photo: Xinhua)

The roofs of the Potala Palace The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region Photos: VCG

Delegates from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region spoke highly of the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), delivered Sunday by Xi Jinping, vowing to fully implement the Party' guidelines and ensuring the CPC Central Committee's policy and arrangements are deeply rooted in border regions. 

"Having great foresights," "inspiring," "a new theoretical peak of Marxism," delegates from Xinjiang and Xizang hailed when studying the report. 

The report serves as a political declaration and guideline to open a new chapter of building a modern socialist country in all respects. It is certain to greatly pool together all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation to strive in unity for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts, Wang Yang said when he joined a group discussion with delegates from Xizang on Monday.

Shen Guiping, a professor specializing in ethnic affairs in Zhejiang University, told the Global Times that in face of the complex international situation, both Xinjiang and Xizang face an arduous task in preventing and defusing major risks in order to safeguard the national dignity and core interests of the country. 

She said over the past years, anti-China forces from the US and some other Western countries have been fabricating rumors relating to Xinjiang and Xizang, even attacking policies and arrangements of the Party and the Chinese government which are meant to address ethnic separatism, violent terrorism and religious extremism. Separatist activities of ethnic and religious separatist forces at home and abroad also pose threats to social stability and ethnic solidarity in Xinjiang and Xizang, Shen noted. 

Wang called for more actively upholding Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and upholding the CPC Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership.

The governance of border regions should be the top priority for the Party and the country. In particular, how to further achieve high-quality and great-leap-forward development in Xinjiang, Xizang and other ethnic minority areas will be the key for the second centenary goal of building a modern socialist country in all respects, Xiong Kunxin, a professor at the Minzu University of China based in Beijing, told the Global Times. 

During the discussion, Wang said Xizang enjoyed the best development, witnessed the biggest changes, and delivered the most benefits to the people in the past decade, and called for more efforts to build a new, modern, socialist Xizang that is united, prosperous, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.

Xizang's delegates noted that under leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at its core, Xizang has fully implemented Xi's important instructions and fully implemented the guidelines of the CPC for governing Xizang in a new era, having addressed long-unsolved problems and accomplished what used to be hard to accomplish.

They said Xizang will thoroughly study the spirit of 20th CPC National Congress and do good work surrounding the four major issues of stability, development, ecology and border-area consolidation, strive to build Xizang into a national example for ethnic unity and progress, a pilot zone for high-quality development on the plateau, a plateau for ecological progress, and a demonstration zone for a strong border region. 

A delegate from Xizang, Zhuo Ga, also a villager from Yumai village, a remote township located in the southern foothills of the Himalayas in Xizang near the border with India, told the Global Times on Tuesday that thanks to the Party and the country being our strongest backbone, Xizang experiences progress with each passing day and those in villages along the border have lived an enriched life since the 18th CPC National Congress.

Li Wenjuan, a township Party chief in Akto county of Xinjiang told the Global Times on Monday that over the past decade the infrastructure where she works has become better and villagers have all moved into beautiful and safe houses, and industries such as tourism and animal husbandry achieved high-quality development. The per capita disposable income in the township increased from 3,895 yuan ($541) in 2012 to 15,878 yuan in 2021.

In a group discussion among delegates from Xinjiang, Xiaokaiti Yiming, director of the People's Congress Standing Committee of Xinjiang, said that "we must learn and thoroughly understand the spirit of 20th CPC National Congress, resolutely implement strategic plan of the CPC Central Committee, and the Party's guideline for governing Xinjiang in the new era, in order to promote the long-term peace and stability of Xinjiang." 

In the CPC's two-step strategic plan, the Party aims to basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035 and build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century.

To meet the goal, great opportunities lie ahead for Xinjiang and Xizang, Shen noted. The expert explained more supportive policies such as expanding assistance, and preferentially financial support will lean toward the two regions. 

Taking advantage of the country's strategy to accelerate creating a new development pattern, Xinjiang - being a hub of One Belt and One Road - can further improve its special development mode and Xizang could gain great leap in fields like ecology tourism and the Internet of Things, Shen said.