Tag: InternationalNews

Themed “Artificial Intelligence and Media Transformation,” the summit gathered over 500 participants from 106 countries and regions, including representatives of 208 mainstream media outlets, government agencies, and international organizations.

During the participants’ stay in Xinjiang, what moments captured with their phones impressed them? Follow Xinhua correspondent Wang Yijie to find out the answer.

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In the city’s old town, shops, food stands and art studios were still bustling with activity. Electric mini-buses carried tourists through a maze of crisscrossing alleys, lined with traditional mud-brick houses.

Deep in a back alley, traditional Uygur dance music blared out. A group of foreigners got off their mini-bus and joined the crowd in an open-air pub.

Omani media executive Fadi Kattar took to the dance floor, where three young Uygur children wowed the audience with their spontaneous dance moves. There was cheering, clapping and laughter.

“It was wonderful,” said Kattar, who is with Muscat Media Group, adding that he liked the nightlife in Kashgar, where traditional music resembled that back home in the Middle East.

With Kattar were over two dozen journalists and media leaders from countries as diverse as France, Qatar, Indonesia, Mongolia, El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea. As participants in the 6th World Media Summit, held in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this week, they were invited to travel to places around the vast region.

Kattar and his group were particularly enticed by the rich culture of the 2,000-year-old Kashgar, once a trading hub on the ancient Silk Road.

The old town, home to 40,000 people and a top tourist spot since 2015, is a must-see for its traditional Uygur architecture and culture. The government spent several years and a combined sum of 7 billion yuan (about 1 billion U.S. dollars) reinforcing the houses and giving the whole area a facelift.

Wensel Mavara, chairperson of the board of the Namibia Daily News, highlighted the preservation of local culture, which “gives this place a uniqueness that attracts tourists.”

More importantly, the project has provided residents with tap water, heating systems, and commercial spaces, while also reinforcing the buildings to withstand strong earthquakes, he added.

Drawing on his experience in Nepal, Kishor Shrestha, chief editor of Jana Aastha National Weekly, emphasized that renovation of this sort is vital for people living in earthquake-prone areas.

“The renovation helped preserve our culture, and enabled locals like me to venture into new business,” said Salamatgul Kari, a 34-year-old Uygur woman who was the first in the old town to turn her family houses into a hostel and a parlor providing dance performances for tourists.

Kashgar has experienced a tourism boom in recent years, with more Chinese and international visitors venturing into this part of the country to explore its diverse geography and rich cultural heritage.

According to government statistics, in the first eight months of this year, about 88,800 foreigners visited the city and nearby counties that constitute the prefecture of Kashgar.

{{REVIVE ANCIENT TRADING HUB}}

Taking the overseas media group around shops selling silk, pottery, spices, fur and carpets, tour guide Nurnigar Dolkun said these goods constituted the bulk of the caravan trade along the ancient Silk Road.

As the ancient Silk Road declined after the 15th century, following the Age of Discovery, the old trading hubs were left for centuries to wither in the dust of history.

In 2013, China put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Part of its goal was to revive the ancient Silk Road. This has given Kashgar a chance to thrive once more, bearing in mind its proximity to Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The same year, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was launched as a flagship project of the BRI, connecting Kashgar with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

In terms of trade, Kashgar is part of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, giving it preferential policies on par with two dozen free-trade zones that represent China’s top trading regions, including Shanghai, Fujian, and Guangdong.

Kashgar’s free-trade zone was the very first stop for the overseas media group on its visit to the city on Tuesday. There, they learned about the planning and industrial layouts of the zone.

Waref Kumayha, president of the Silk Road Institute for Studies and Research in Lebanon, was keen to learn about issues like tax reductions for foreign investments and investment criteria for foreign businesses.

He nodded in delight after hearing that income tax for companies in the zone would be exempted or halved and there is no minimum investment requirement for foreign businesses. “Government policy support is crucial for a place’s economic development,” he said.

“We welcome friends from all over the world to invest in Kashgar,” said Liu Guo, a local official in charge of investment promotion.

This year, a Kyrgyz logistics company began to operate in the zone. Officials said efforts are being made to further accelerate the logistics of China-Kyrgysztan cross-border trade.

According to Liu, Kashgar is trying to build a commodity processing and distribution hub linking China to the markets in Central Asia and South Asia.

Calling the free-trade zone in Kashgar a major and significant project, Salah Eddin Elzein, advisor to the director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, said that it not only enhances economic development in the region, but also benefits the entire country of China and the neighboring nations linked through various ports.

The rapid development of Kashgar relies not only on favorable free-trade policies, but also on substantial infrastructure development, the media leaders observed.

Kashgar is re-positioning itself as a transportation hub in China’s far west, they were told. Flights from Pakistan can bring frozen seafood from the Indian Ocean directly to the tables of people in Xinjiang. Chinese electric vehicles are being exported to BRI partner countries through Kashgar.

Kashgar was designated as the starting point of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. Construction is expected to finish in a couple of years’ time.

“A more open and vibrant economy of Kashgar not only promotes China’s development but also offers broader cooperation opportunities for foreign enterprises,” said Khaled Moussa, managing editor of the Muscat Media Group.

The essence of China’s BRI, Moussa said, is that “it benefits all.”

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“Among the people of the region, the level of harmony and respect is comprehensive and complete,” Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council of Palestine, told Xinhua during a recent interview.

Zakarneh has paid multiple visits to China. Speaking of some Western governments’ and media’s smear campaign against China about its Xinjiang policy, he said that the West is “trying to exploit anything to undermine China’s progress and development.”

This March, a delegation of members of political parties from Arab countries headed by Zakarneh, visited Xinjiang. “China’s experience in all regions is rich, and with every visit, we feel the magnitude of the benefit we gain in various fields,” Zakarneh said.

During the visit, the delegation learned about Xinjiang’s development in such areas as agricultural technology, livestream shopping and cross-border e-commerce.

“We find agriculture that does not require much space and land,” Zakarneh said. “Many of our products are destroyed due to the inability to sell them in season, but after learning about the agricultural industrialization carried out by China, our countries can enhance communication to exchange experience in this field.”

The delegation visited mosques and some other places of worship. Zakarneh said China preserves and gives each religion care for its sanctities with full and comprehensive support.

Zakarneh said the delegation expressed respect for China’s treatment of freedom of religion and the extent of its respect for human rights, contrary to what the U.S.-led West has said to distort China’s image and hinder its progress.

The delegation attended an exhibition on China’s counter-terrorism effort as well. “China has creativity in confronting terrorism through the awakening and cohesion of its people and the strength of its security services,” Zakarneh said.

The first measures, he added, are to educate citizens about preventing the infiltration of terrorist ideas and stopping anyone from exploiting this to attack China, by rehabilitating these people and educating them in school, so that they graduate with mastery of crafts, not to mention providing job opportunities and supporting various groups so that everyone in the region could become a producer, whether in agriculture, industry, or trade.

“China has faced this with strength and confidence and opened the borders of the Xinjiang region for all delegations to see for themselves the reality as it is. Our visit and observation on the ground were proof that Western propaganda is false,” Zakarneh said.