This is apropos three letters to the Editor titled ‘The foundations of Xinjiang’s transformation (1949–1990)’ carried by the newspaper on Thursday, Friday and yesterday.
For the new leadership in Beijing, integrating Xinjiang was therefore both a political and moral mission. The revolution’s promise of equality and justice demanded that development reach even the farthest frontier. Geography, in the eyes of the state, was not a constraint but a divine opportunity – to transform the western wilderness into a thriving link between China’s heartland and the greater Eurasian world. Chairman Mao’s First Five-Year Plan, launched in 1953, declared that “industrialization must serve the whole people and all regions.” That principle laid the foundation for the region’s transformation from subsistence to self-sufficiency and eventually to modern prosperity.
Beijing’s approach was carefully phased and deeply pragmatic. It began with what China called the “dual-track” strategy – cultivating human capacity while modernizing the material base. The first track focused on education. Schools were built across rural and pastoral areas; literacy drives reached adults as well as children; and vocational institutions trained the first generation of local teachers, doctors, and technicians. In a society where modern schooling was almost unknown, this was an intellectual revolution. Education became not merely an instrument of governance but a bridge between tradition and modernity – empowering herders, artisans, and farmers to become participants in national progress.
(Qamar Bashir)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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