Performers dance to welcome the passengers arriving in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 25, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Shan)

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has not seen violent terrorism cases for more than five years, and people's sense of security has significantly risen over the past decade, from 87.58 percent in 2012 to 99.14 percent in 2021, an official from Xinjiang said on Thursday at a press conference on the sidelines of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

More than 70 percent of Xinjiang's financial expenditure has been spent on safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, continuously promoting employment, education, medical care, social security and other projects related to people's livelihood, enhancing people's well-being with concrete efforts, Zhang Chunlin, deputy secretary and head of publicity department of the CPC Xinjiang Regional Committee, said at the press conference on Thursday. 

Since 2012, the average annual growth rates of disposable income of urban and rural residents in Xinjiang have reached 7.9 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, he noted.

At present, all administrative villages in Xinjiang have running water, ending the history of thousands of years in southern Xinjiang of drinking bitter and salty water; all administrative villages have also been connected with asphalt roads, cement roads and power electricity.

Xinjiang has also made the promotion of education a priority, especially the construction of 6,353 kindergartens, allowing rural children to attend good schools.

On poverty alleviation, Zhang said that all 35 poor counties have been lifted out of poverty, involving some 3.05 million people. Farmers have achieved employment in mini engineering industrial parks on their doorsteps, further consolidating the results of poverty eradication.

Over the past 10 years, the local government has strongly promoted healthcare for Xinjiang residents, providing physical examinations every year for free to urban and rural residents. In the past, tuberculosis was a serious disease in southern Xinjiang, but through years of treatment, tuberculosis and other major infectious diseases have been effectively curbed.

Speaking about people's sense of security, Zhang noted that Xinjiang has been free of violent terrorism cases for more than five years. According to statistics, the public's sense of security in Xinjiang has risen from 87.58 percent in 2012 to 99.14 percent in 2021.

"The current Xinjiang enjoys social stability, ethnic unity, religious harmony, economic development," Zhang said.