Xing Huina:

Due to limited time, the last question please. 

CCTV:

In 2020, during his inspection tour in Yunnan, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Simola village in Tengchong and urged the villagers to make the happy Wa ethnic village even happier. Could you tell us how the lives of the villagers in the Wa ethnic village have been in recent years? How has Yunnan Province performed in terms of ethnic unity and progress? Thank you!

Wang Yubo:

Thanks to the reporter from CGTN. I will answer this question. In 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Simola Wa Village in Tengchong city during his inspection tour to Yunnan, saying to the villagers: "make the happy village even happier." Simola means "a place of happiness" in the local language. After China completes the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, it is necessary to comprehensively promote rural vitalization to make the happy village even happier, General Secretary Xi Jinping said this to the villagers during his visit. Over the past four years, we have kept General Secretary Xi Jinping's expectations in mind and developed rural industries with local features in light of actual conditions. More and more people have made their living by engaging in tourism and other eco-friendly businesses. Some of them are engaged in livestreaming e-commerce, turning the local mountain specialties into trending products on the internet. Simola Wa village has now become a national 4A-level scenic area, a beautiful leisure village and a demonstration village on rural governance. Its per capita net income in 2023 reaching 23,000 yuan, nearly double that of 2019. 

As we all know, Yunnan is home to a large number of ethnic groups, with all 56 of China's ethnic groups distributed, including 25 indigenous ethnic minorities. It is one of four provinces within the country where the minority population is larger than 10 million. All nationalities are one family, and the whole family should live better lives. The work we will carry out is enriched with the connotation and significance of forging a strong sense of community among the Chinese people, we will coordinate improving people's livelihood and winning public support to rally the people of all ethnic groups like pomegranate seeds. 

We insist on building a beautiful homeland together as one family. We focus more policies, projects and investment to areas with large ethnic minority populations. There are 11 airports operating in areas with large ethnic minority populations. High-speed rail or bullet trains are available in six of the eight autonomous prefectures. Villages in all areas with large ethnic minority populations have access to paved roads, postal communication and 4G networks. Every year, over 5 million people leave the mountains with many of them go to the eastern regions to find jobs. In the new era, GDP of ethnic autonomous areas has grown by an average of 9% annually, higher than the national and provincial average. In 2023, collective annual economic income of 374 villages exceeded 100,000 yuan and the per capita disposable income exceeded 20,000 yuan, an increase of nearly 10,000 yuan compared with the end of 2019. 

We are committed to safeguarding ethnic unity as one family. In Yunnan, scenes of people of different ethnic groups living in harmony can be seen everywhere. Like He Wanchun's family in Diqing, there are four ethnic groups his family of more than 20 people. Our research has found that there are seven ethnic groups among the 186 households in Dali's Zhengjiazhuang village. We educate, guide and inspire the people with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhere to core socialist values, deepen cultural efforts to revitalize Yunnan, carry forward and develop fine traditional Chinese culture as well as promote the standard spoken and written Chinese language to let people of all ethnic groups build a shared spiritual home for the Chinese nation through exchange, interaction and integration. 

We are united as one family in safeguarding our sacred national territory. Yunnan is one of the provinces with the longest borderline in the country, with 16 cross-border ethnic minorities. We have strengthened China's national defense through joint efforts of the Party, the government, the military, police and civilians. In addition, we are strengthening the construction of infrastructure and public service facilities in border areas, developing border tourism and other industries, striving to achieve prosperity for border residents, and build beautiful and stable borders with strong border defenses. Veteran Party chiefs from border villages of the Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County have got a letter in reply from General Secretary Xi Jinping. As one of the border villages, Xiabanba village in recent years has attracted a large number of tourists to visit border areas by developing tourism with local features. Over the past three years, the average annual growth rate of per capita net income has been 34.3%. The villagers say that they are now living prosperous lives and that they can, at the same time, take care of their families and protect the borders.

Thank you.

Xing Huina:

That concludes today's press conference. Thanks to the three speakers as well as all the reporters.

Translated and edited by Zhang Rui, Wang Qian, Li Xiao, Wang Yanfang, Ma Yujia, Yuan Fang, Liu Caiyi, Huang Shan, Xu Kailin, Wang Yiming, Wang Ziteng, Xiang Bin, Yang Xi, Li Huiru, Liu Jianing, David Ball, Jay Birbeck, and Rochelle Beiersdorfer. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.