Xi Story: Seeds of unity, fruits of shared prosperity in China

BEIJING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Ahead of the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival, dozens of residents from different ethnic groups in a Yinchuan community donned costumes featuring traditional paper-cutting designs and took to the runway for a festive celebration.

An ethnically diverse community in the capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Changcheng Huayuan is home to more than 19,000 residents, with members of 11 ethnic minority groups accounting for about 35 percent of the population.

In the living room of resident Zhao Shoucheng, who comes from a multi-ethnic family, two framed works hang prominently on the wall.

One is a photograph of President Xi Jinping's visit to the family home in June 2024, while the other is an ink painting of pomegranates, a fruit traditionally associated with unity and a flourishing family in Chinese culture.

On that summer day, Xi sat with the family beneath the pomegranates painting and chatted about their everyday lives, asking about everything from employment and income to medical insurance and education.

Xi also noticed that Zhao's grandson, then a fifth-grader, had finished first in his grade in a running event. He told the boy: "Children should attain a well-rounded development, with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills."

Over the years, Xi has set foot in a number of places inhabited by ethnic minority groups, discussed their development with national legislators and political advisors, and supported paired-assistance programs designed to help these less-developed regions catch up.

Backed by unprecedented support for infrastructure, industries, public services and more, all of the over 30 million people living in poverty in China's five autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Xizang, Ningxia and Xinjiang, as well as the three multi-ethnic provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai, had been lifted out of poverty by the end of 2020, along with the rest of the country.

This historic achievement embodied Xi's long-held conviction that "not a single ethnic group should be left behind" in China's efforts to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The transformation of the Dulong people, with a population of just about 7,000, offers a vivid example. Mostly living deep in the mountains of southwest China's Yunnan Province, they endured generations of relative isolation and poverty, with rugged terrain making travel to the outside world a difficult undertaking.

Shortly before New Year's Day in 2014, residents of Gongshan County, home to most of the Dulong people, wrote to Xi to share the news that a highway tunnel through the Gaoligong Mountains was nearing completion. The tunnel promised to cut a journey that once took days to less than three hours.

During an inspection tour of Yunnan a year later, Xi met with the residents who had written to him, asking about the progress of the tunnel and changes in their lives.

"I'm here to encourage you to keep up the good work," Xi said, assuring them that the development of all ethnic groups was a matter of great importance to the central leadership.

Building on the gains of poverty elimination, Xi has pivoted to a broader vision -- common prosperity. For ethnic minority regions, this means advancing rural revitalization across the board, fostering coordinated regional development, and pursuing high-quality development in border areas.

In a village called Galai in the Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China, locals have turned the annual peach blossom festival into a thriving tourist attraction with the support of a paired-assistance program involving south China's Guangdong Province. Notably, traditional folk customs like archery and horse riding, along with homestays, fruit-picking orchards and planting businesses, are helping to boost local incomes.

Five years ago, Xi visited this village located in the city of Nyingchi in Xizang, where he walked into the home of villager Dawa Gyaltsen and had a chat with his family.

Dawa Gyaltsen told Xi that the family had multiple sources of income, ranging from transportation services to tourism dividends generated by the peach blossom festival. "That adds up to several hundred thousand yuan -- a happy family indeed," Xi told the Tibetan villager.

Fueled by the "peach blossom economy," villagers in Galai now earn, on average, 20 times what they did at the beginning of the century.

Last year, Nyima Dorje, a village official, wrote a letter to Xi on behalf of the residents, detailing the latest changes in the village. Xi's reply delighted him. "I feel happy for you," Xi wrote back, encouraging the villagers to work together to safeguard ethnic unity and build happier, better lives.

To enhance law-based governance and promote unity and common prosperity among the country's 56 ethnic groups, Xi signed a presidential order promulgating the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which took effect in July 2026.

The law designates the fourth week of September to highlight the promotion of unity and progress among ethnic groups. A range of activities have unfolded across the country to mark this occasion.

Xi has stressed the importance of ethnic unity and progress to realizing national rejuvenation, urging people of all ethnic groups to stay closely united like the seeds of a pomegranate.

First shared by a Uygur resident during his visit to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, more than a decade ago, this metaphor has since become a recurring theme in Xi's remarks on ethnic unity.

At the square of the Changcheng Huayuan community, Xi shared his view with residents who had gathered to greet him: "The 56 ethnic groups, united as one, form the community of the Chinese nation."

"Together, we will strive to advance Chinese modernization and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!"