The New Dominion

As part of the announcement of the reopening of the Internet in Xinjiang, the regional government wrote an “Open Letter” to the Internet users of Xinjiang. Below is our translation of the letter.

To all netizen friends throughout Xinjiang:

Greetings!

With direct concern from the Party Central Committee and after careful research by the Autonomous Regional Party Committee, it was decided to fully restore Internet service in our region on May 14th.

Since July, as our region began control over Internet communications and implementation of a gradual re-opening, Internet users far and wide have given their complete understanding and immense support, actively contributing to the protection of our region’s social stability and creating favorable conditions for implementing the reinstatement of the Internet throughout the region. For this, we express our heartfelt gratitude to all our netizen friends.

The Internet has become a vital component of the life of modern society. It is the gateway through which the Party committee and the government communicate to the vast multitudes as well as a channel for hearing public opinion and the collective wisdom of the people. Through their active comments and suggestions, netizens have expressed their love of Xinjiang and their boundless enthusiasm for building a better Xinjiang. They have shown to the world that people of every ethnicity in Xinjiang are simple, forgiving, sincere, and optimistic at heart.

The construction of a healthy, wholesome Internet community not only touches open economic and social development, but also concerns the personal interests of Internet users. We must value today’s hard-earned stability, value the completely open environment of the Internet, and use the Internet for the expression of good and in service of what is good.

It is the intense desire of peoples throughout all of Xinjiang to quicken the pace of economic and social development in Xinjiang. Soon, the Central Committee will open the Xinjiang Work Conference, which aims to formulate a strategy for advancing developmental breakthroughs and long-lasting peace in Xinjiang, and so Xinjiang has a historical and an important opportunity for considerable growth, opening, and development. In order to tightly grasp this opportunity, bring maximum benefit to the lives of peoples of all ethnicities, and continue the promotion of social harmony stability, the cooperation of netizens throughout the region, including cadres and peoples of all ethnicities, is necessary.

Xinjiang will appear before the world with an attitude of even greater confidence and openness. There can be no open Xinjiang without an open Internet, which is something we must create, hand in hand, for an even brighter future for the region. We hope that netizens will continue, as before, to be vigilant, to support the development and growth of Xinjiang, and, using the Internet as a platform, continue to offer poignant criticisms and excellent policy ideas for development and stability in Xinjiang; together building and even more prosperous and thriving Xinjiang. Xinjiang looks forward to a brighter tomorrow.

Wishing netizens blessings, happiness, and health,

Autonomous Regional Party Committee Ministry of Propaganda

14 May 2010