"Go West, Young Man!" was the 19th century rallying cry for economic growth and development in the United States. It was also Abraham Lincoln's vision to build the transcontinental railroad to facilitate this development. Today, China's Belt and Road Initiative exhibits the same spirit of progress and development, exemplified by the astounding development of Xinjiang, writes BRIX Sweden chairman Stephen Brawer.
Published 9 May 2024
Stephen Brawer at the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance in Beijing in June 2023.
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.
My visit to Xinjiang in November 2023 was the opportunity of a lifetime. Since I became chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, the mainstream media in Sweden and Europe has been pouring out false information, attacking China for “human rights” abuses, forced labor camps, and even genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. This disinformation campaign is directed mainly toward the European population and has worked only because they lack the experience and the ability to see the reality for themselves. I am very happy and very privileged to have been given this opportunity personally. Xinjiang is a province in the far west of China. Although it is the province with the largest land area, it is also one of the least populated provinces with a total population of approximately 25 million.
The landscape is among the most beautiful I have seen in my lifetime. The seemingly unending sands of the Taklamakan desert and the snow-covered peaks of the Tian Shan mountains combine for an unforgettable experience of the power of Nature.
Xinjiang covers an area as large as Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined.
Xinjiang literally means “New Frontier” in Chinese. Since China embraced the policy reforms of Deng Xiaoping’s “Opening Up” in 1978, China’s rapid development transformed the Guangdong province. The city of Shenzhen has been particularly successful in implementing Deng’s policies, growing from a small fishing village into a high-tech metropolis of more than 20 million people. Shenzhen is now, in fact, the model for how to replicate this great success in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang literally means “New Frontier” in Chinese.
My visit included a trip to Kashgar. I was an invited speaker at a major conference on the Belt and Road Initiative held at Kashgar University. The expansion and development of the University as a major source of knowledge and higher education was by itself an inspiring experience. In his speech in Beijing on the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative in October 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping focused on the next 10 years for the further development of the Belt and Road Initiative. My presence at the Belt and Road Forum, made clear to me China’s commitment to Xinjiang, in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
A picture of the old town of Kashgar, taken by the author of the article during his visit there.
Kashgar by night.
Xinjiang borders eight countries, all of which can and will play a central role in connecting China to Central Asia and Europe. Major infrastructure, industrial, energy and trade corridors are being built to connect Xinjiang with these countries. These neighbouring countries are Kazakhstan, Russia, India, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Afghanistan.
There can in the not-so-distant future be a network of fast trains running between China and these bordering countries through Xinjiang. Ürümqi has already become a logistics hub with 6 500 freight trains carrying goods manufactured in Xinjiang to 19 countries in Europe and Central Asia. China is receiving large portions of its gas pipeline imports from Central Asia.
Stephen Brawer speaking at the conference on the Belt and Road Initiative held at Kashgar University.
The potential of natural gas reserves as well as hydro power development is a natural organic connection between Xinjiang and China, into Central Asia, and further into Southwest Asia, Africa, and Europe. Not to join in such a grand development perspective which the BRI envisions is worse than short-sighted. It is in fact sabotage of mankind’s best interests.
Ürümqi has already become a logistics hub with 6 500 freight trains carrying goods manufactured in Xinjiang to 19 countries in Europe and Central Asia.
It was in 2004, that the Chinese government launched its “Go West” campaign. The purpose was to balance the economic growth of China’s wealthier and more populous eastern provinces with the less developed and more sparsely populated western regions. The BRI, which was an extension of this “Go West” strategy, has expanded China’s “Opening Up”, to include the vast landmass of Eurasia. During my visit to Shenzhen, I was able to visit the historical museum, which describes the great transformation which was led by Yuan Geng. It was inspiring to see how Shenzhen was transformed into what is today one of the main drivers of China’s economic growth. The vision of Xinjiang becoming a new Shenzhen was an underlying theme of the conference at Kashgar. The coming ten years of the BRI have all the potential to turn Xinjiang into the gateway of prosperity in Central and West Asia.
Ironically, the internal development of the United States was based on precisely the same type of vision. “Go West, Young Man!” was the 19th century rallying cry for economic growth and development in the United States. It was also Abraham Lincoln’s vision to build the transcontinental railroad to facilitate this development. If only there were leaders, like Lincoln, in the United States today, that would operate and think in similar ways, there would be no problem in bringing the United States and Europe on board to join and cooperate with the BRI.
“Go West, Young Man!” was the 19th century rallying cry for economic growth and development in the United States.
Stephen Brawer, Chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden in dialogue with Professor Tao Yitao, Dean of Shenzhen University and Director of the China Center for Special Economic Zones Research and Xie Yifei, lead reporter and producer for Guangdong TV.
Xi Jinping’s Global Civilization Initiative is a framework for uniting human civilization around cultural dialogue. In light of this, the religious, cultural and historical archive of Xinjiang can impact not only Eurasia, but most importantly Western civilization. It addressess the need to build bridges between East and West. Only by improving understanding and knowledge which ultimately unites human civilizations can we achieve the goal of “a community for a shared future for mankind”.
Only by improving understanding and knowledge which ultimately unites human civilizations can we achieve the goal of “a community for a shared future for mankind”.
Let us proceed in light of these higher ideals of human reason. It is with this goal in mind that the work of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden will go forward and grow.
Stephen Brawer,
Chairman of BRIX Sweden – The Belt and Road Institute in Sweden
BRIX Sweden - the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, is a non-profit association founded by the organizers, speakers and participants of a seminar on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its economic and strategic importance for Europe and Sweden, which took place in Stockholm on 30 May 2018. The seminar was jointly organized by the Schiller Institute and the China-Sweden Business Council.
BRIX members include entrepreneurs, economists and strategic experts with a wide range of expertise in Swedish and Chinese economic issues. Their common conclusion is that the BRI is not only important for good economic and political relations between China and Sweden, but also fundamentally favorable for economic development and peace among all countries.
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While the world focused on terrorist attacks in the West, an extensive wave of violence erupted in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.
From the early 1990s to the mid-2010s, thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out, killing hundreds of innocent people and transforming an entire region.
The Nordic Times has visited the Xinjiang region and uncovered three decades of overlooked terrorism in what has today become one of the world's safest countries.
It is just before six o’clock in the evening on February 28, 2012. On Xingfu Road, a pedestrian street with market stalls in the city of Yecheng in southern Xinjiang, it is crowded with people. Shop owners are selling grain, vegetables and fish. Children are on their way home from school. It is an ordinary Tuesday evening in an ordinary Chinese city.
Then the massacre begins.
Nine men, armed with axes and machetes, storm into the street and begin hacking down everyone who comes in their way. Within minutes, fifteen people are killed and sixteen are seriously injured. Among the dead is an auxiliary police officer who tried to stop the men when he discovered they were carrying weapons. Among the injured are a four-year-old boy and his mother, a 60-year-old woman whose jaw was crushed by an ax, and several shop owners who tried to defend themselves.
— When I saw what the terrorist was holding, my first thought was, ‘Oh no, he’s going to kill me’, recounts shop owner Wang Tiancheng, who managed to fight back with a wooden chair.
— When terrorists come at you, you either fight back or wait and die.
The attack in Yecheng is just one in a long series of terrorist attacks that struck China, and especially the Xinjiang region, for nearly three decades. Between 1990 and 2016, according to official Chinese sources, thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out in the region, where large numbers of innocent people were killed and hundreds of police officers died on duty.
But for many in the Western world, this story is largely unknown.
A region of diversity and conflict
To understand the emergence of terrorism in Xinjiang, one must understand the region’s complex history. Xinjiang, or “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” as its official name is, is an enormous region in northwestern China covering 1.66 million square kilometers – about the size of Alaska, or the combined area of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The region borders eight countries: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Xinjiang has been home to many different peoples since ancient times. By the end of the 19th century, thirteen ethnic groups had established themselves in the region: Uyghurs, Han, Kazakhs, Mongols, Hui, Kyrgyz, Manchus, Xibe, Tajiks, Daurs, Uzbeks, Tatars and Russians. The Uyghurs constituted the largest group.
The Uyghur people, who today number around ten million, have their roots in the Ouigour people who lived on the Mongolian plateau during the Sui and Tang dynasties in the 6th–10th centuries. Through centuries of migration and ethnic integration, the modern Uyghur identity was formed. During the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, Mongolian blood was added, and the standardized name form “Uyghur” (维吾尔) was not adopted until 1934, with the meaning “to maintain unity among the people.”
Religion has also been diverse in Xinjiang. From shamanistic origins, the region successively transitioned to Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Manichaeism and Nestorianism. Islam was introduced to southern Xinjiang in the late 10th century and spread to the northern part during the 14th century, often through war and coercion. But Islam was neither the original nor the only religion – even today, a significant portion of the population practices other religions or is non-religious.
The Xinjiang region’s location in northwestern China with borders to several Muslim countries with high levels of poverty has made the region particularly vulnerable to the intrusion of religious extremism.
The roots of separatism
Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, colonial powers began spreading theories of “pan-Turkism” and “pan-Islamism” in Central and South Asia. These ideologies would come to lay the foundation for a separatist movement in Xinjiang.
Separatists and religious extremists, both inside and outside China, began claiming that the Uyghurs were the only “true rulers” of Xinjiang, that the region’s cultures were not Chinese cultures, and that Islam was the only religion practiced by the ethnic groups there. They called on all Turkic-speaking and Muslim ethnic groups to unite to create the theocratic state of “East Turkistan.” They denied China’s common history and called for “opposition to all ethnic groups except Turks” and “annihilation of pagans.”
On November 12, 1933, the so-called “Islamic Republic of East Turkistan” was proclaimed by the separatist Mohammad Imin. The experiment collapsed after less than three months due to strong opposition from the population. A new attempt was made on November 12, 1944, when separatists led by Elihan Torae proclaimed yet another “Republic of East Turkistan,” but it too fell apart after about a year.
But the East Turkistan movement did not die. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, separatist forces, with support from anti-China forces internationally, continued to organize and plan divisive and sabotage activities.
Religious extremism as a weapon
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, religious extremism began making deeper inroads into Xinjiang. The religious extremism that emerged had little in common with traditional Islam.
The extremists preached that people should only obey Allah and urged them to resist all state control. Those who did not follow the path of extremism were branded as pagans, traitors and scum. Followers were urged to verbally attack, reject and isolate non-believers, party members, officials and patriotic religious leaders.
They banned all secular culture and preached a life without TV, radio and newspapers. People were not allowed to cry at funerals or laugh at weddings. Singing and dancing were forbidden. Women were forced to wear heavily veiled, long black garments. The concept of “halal” was generalized far beyond food to include medicine, cosmetics and clothing.
“They turned a blind eye to Xinjiang’s diverse and splendid cultures created by all its ethnic groups, and tried to sever the ties between Chinese culture and Xinjiang’s ethnic cultures,” states a Chinese official report. “All this indicates their denial of modern civilization, rejection of human progress, and gross violation of citizens’ human rights.”
Poverty became a breeding ground for extremism. In certain areas of Xinjiang, people had weak understanding of the law, could not speak, read or write standard Chinese, and lacked employable skills. This made them more susceptible to being lured or forced into criminality by terrorist and extremist groups.
The violence escalates
From the 1990s onwards, terrorism intensified dramatically. The East Turkistan forces, both inside and outside China, stepped up their cooperation as terrorism and extremism spread globally, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
In the name of religion and ethnicity, they deceitfully exploited people’s ethnic identity and religious faith to incite religious fanaticism, spread religious extremism, and urge ordinary people to participate in violent and terrorist activities. They brainwashed people with the concept of “jihad” and persuaded them to “die for their faith to enter heaven.” Some of the most susceptible followers lost all self-control and became extremists and terrorists who ruthlessly slaughtered innocent people.
Montage of images from the 1992 bombing in the regional capital Ürümqi. Photo: The Nordic Times
On February 5, 1992, in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebration, a terrorist group planted bombs on two buses in Ürümqi. Three people were killed and 23 injured.
On February 25, 1997, three buses in Ürümqi were blown up by East Turkistan terrorists, killing nine and seriously injuring 68 people.
On February 5–8, 1997, the East Turkistan movement orchestrated riots in Yining. Seven people were killed and 198 injured, 64 of them seriously. More than 30 vehicles were damaged and two houses were burned down.
On August 24, 1993, Senior Mullah Abulizi, imam at the Great Mosque in Yecheng County, was stabbed and seriously injured by two terrorists.
On May 12, 1996, Aronghan Aji, vice chairman of the China Islamic Association and chairman of the Xinjiang Islamic Association, was attacked by four terrorists who stabbed him 21 times on his way to the mosque. He survived but was seriously injured.
On November 6, 1997, Senior Mullah Younusi Sidike, member of the China Islamic Association and imam at the Great Mosque in Baicheng County, was shot dead by a terrorist group on his way to the mosque.
On July 30, 2014, the 74-year-old Senior Mullah Juma Tayier, vice chairman of the Xinjiang Islamic Association and imam at the Id Kah Mosque, was brutally murdered by three terrorists on his way home after morning prayer.
The list could be made much longer. The violence was directed at everyone – ordinary citizens on streets and squares, religious leaders who dared oppose extremism, government officials and police officers.
Massacre on Xingfu Road
The attack in Yecheng on February 28, 2012, became one of the most brutal examples of the blind terrorism that struck Xinjiang. The nine terrorists had divided themselves into three groups with plans to kill an estimated 500 people each. Their original target was the schoolchildren from nearby elementary and middle schools.
But the plan was exposed by auxiliary police officer Turghunjan, 28 years old and a new father to a six-month-old baby. He saw the group gathering at the market and asked them to disperse. When they refused and he discovered that one of them was carrying an ax, he tried to take them to the police station. Then a terrorist gave a signal and hacked him down. Several others fell upon him and stabbed him to death.
Turghunjan’s father, Tursun Talip, who worked at a school, received the news that same evening but did not dare tell his sick wife for several days.
— I went back to the scene the next afternoon, there remained some blood on the ground, and I was sitting there, looking at the blood, and crying. All I had in my mind was the scene where my son was hacked to the ground, and I could even hear him cry, “Dad, Dad…”
When the terrorists began their attack, it was total chaos. Wang Tiancheng, the shop owner with the grain and oil store, was standing in front of his shop when he suddenly felt a blow from behind.
— After the first hack, two people (the terrorists) turned directly to my front. They were holding an ax in one hand and a machete in another, and their axes were so big, and the hafts were so long. So, they hacked me with their machete right on my head and shoulder.
Wang managed to defend himself with a wooden chair and escaped with wounds to his head and shoulder. The doctor later said that the shoulder bone would have been broken if the machete had gone half a centimeter deeper.
But many others were not so lucky. In the grain shop next door, the shop owner and two employees were killed. An elderly couple shopping there was attacked – the man was killed on the spot and the woman was hacked in the head as she tried to protect her grandchild. She became half-paralyzed after the attack.
— They hacked me for no reason. This was so unreasonable. On a personal level, I had no grudge against him. But on a societal level, he was carrying out terrorist activities, says Wang Tiancheng.
Brother Mehmet Tursun lost his brother Ubulqasim in the attack. His brother worked in a grain shop and defended himself with his fists but was hacked to death.
— This incident has brought us so much harm that we are still in pain and anger today. It destroyed my sister-in-law’s entire family. My dad was in constant pain and eventually passed away. My younger brother, who was only nine years old when it happened, developed epilepsy from the shock.
Their father could never get over his son’s death. He became ill shortly after the attack and passed away five years later, in 2017, after spending his final years visiting his grandchild’s school every other day – the only moments when he felt some joy.
When the police arrived at the scene, several shop owners were still fighting the terrorists. Brothers Chen Jizhong and Chen Jide from Sichuan Province, who ran fish shops on the street, were among them. With fishing nets, wooden sticks and a steel pipe, they managed to subdue one of the terrorists.
— We were scared when we saw the terrorist with a machete in his hands. But then, we realized that things couldn’t go on like this, and we must defend ourselves, recalls Chen Jizhong.
Seven of the terrorists were shot dead by police at the scene. One was injured and died later. One was captured alive, sentenced to death and executed.
Terror in the capital
Xinjiang terrorism was not limited to the region. On October 28, 2013, three terrorists from Xinjiang drove a jeep loaded with 31 barrels of gasoline, 20 lighters, five knives and several iron bars onto the sidewalk east of Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. They accelerated toward tourists and police on duty until they crashed into the barrier at the Golden Water Bridge. They then set fire to the gasoline. Two people, including a foreigner, were killed and over 40 were injured.
Smoke rises from Tiananmen Square in Beijing after the attack on October 28, 2013.
On March 1, 2014, eight knife-wielding terrorists from Xinjiang carried out a massacre at the railway station in Kunming. They attacked passengers in the station square and ticket lobby. 31 people were killed and 141 injured. The attack shocked all of China and received international attention.
The terrorist attack on Kunming railway station in southern China in 2014, where victims were attacked with machetes among other weapons, became a major trauma for the country.
On April 30, 2014, two terrorists hid in the crowd at the exit of Ürümqi railway station. One attacked people with a knife while the other detonated a device in his suitcase. Three people were killed and 79 injured.
On May 22, 2014, five terrorists drove two SUVs through the fence at the morning market on North Park Road in the Saybagh district of Ürümqi, into the crowd, and then detonated a bomb. 39 people were killed and 94 injured.
However, the most extensive violence occurred on July 5, 2009, when East Turkistan forces inside and outside China orchestrated a riot in Ürümqi that shocked the entire world. Thousands of terrorists attacked civilians, government agencies, police, residential buildings, shops and public transport vehicles. 197 people were killed and over 1,700 injured. 331 shops and 1,325 vehicles were smashed and burned down, and many public facilities were damaged.
Images from the attack at Ürümqi railway station in 2014.
Three decades’ trail of terror
Between 1990 and the end of 2016, according to official Chinese sources, a total of thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out in Xinjiang. Large numbers of innocent people were killed, hundreds of police officers died on duty, and the property damage is incalculable.
From 2014, authorities in Xinjiang crushed over 1,500 violent and terrorism-related groups, arrested nearly 13,000 accused terrorists, seized over 2,000 explosive devices, and prosecuted over 30,000 people for what was designated as illegal religious activities. Large quantities of religious material that authorities considered illegal were also confiscated.
For Wang Tiancheng, the shop owner who was attacked with an ax and machete, it took years to process the experience. Photo: ICBG.
— It’s been many years since the terrorist attack, but I can still feel the horror whenever I recall it. To be honest, we were scared. But now that the attack had happened, the first thing we should do was to stay calm and be brave and try to fight back. It is the mentality I always uphold. We must not fear terrorism.
For families like Tursun Talip’s, whose son Turghunjan was killed when he tried to stop the terrorists, the pain was immeasurable but also associated with a certain pride, he tells the Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance (ICBG) at Jinan University.
— Although our family was heartbroken for my oldest son Turghunjan’s sacrifice, I feel proud of my son from the bottom of my heart. We told my youngest son that his brother saved the lives of many children, and we also hoped that my youngest son to be a police officer and fight against terrorism!
Turghunjan’s younger brother became a police officer in 2014, two years after his brother’s death.
A calm characterizes the bustling crowds today in Kashgar, an ancient city in westernmost Xinjiang with a 2,000-year history as a meeting place along the Silk Road, known for its labyrinthine old quarter steeped in Islamic culture. Photo: The Nordic Times
Police officer Semet, who was among the first on the scene in Yecheng in 2012 and saw his chief shoot two terrorists at close range, has never wanted to quit being a police officer despite the experience.
— I grew up dreaming of becoming a police officer. Many of us wanted to be police officers when we were still boys. I love this job. I regard it as a very sacred career.
The nearly three decades of terror have left deep scars in Xinjiang, but also marked the rest of China. Families were torn apart, communities changed, and fear characterized daily life for millions of people.
Since 2016, however, China has largely been free from terrorist acts after the People’s Republic’s extensive measures and counter-terrorism programs. Today, the country is one of the world’s safest countries to be in with very few violent crimes.
How has China succeeded in combating terrorism, restoring order and security, and what is actually true about the situation in Xinjiang and the relationship with the country’s ethnic minorities?
The Nordic Times examines the subject and the international reporting that has surrounded the developments in the next article.
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.
In the pre-dawn darkness of Yunnan province’s high mountains, a daily ritual unfolds. Ms. Zhang Guimei, a 68-year-old principal, walks the halls of China’s first free high school for girls, waking her students. Though illness has weakened her, her resolve is unwavering. Her mission is singular: to propel young women from the brink of child marriage and poverty into the nation’s top universities.
Her story, which captivated China, is not one of gentle charity but of profound conviction. For over 25 years, she navigated treacherous terrain to build this school, offering a lifeline away from domestic labour and towards knowledge and self-determination. Her work is emblematic of a larger, state-supported revolution: the educational empowerment of women, treated not as a standalone social project but as a core driver of national development.
This modern drive finds its roots in a pivotal historical shift. Around the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, a mass mobilisation encouraged women to join the workforce, encapsulated in the saying that “Women hold up half the sky”. This philosophy was even etched into the language. The traditional character for “woman” (婦) depicted a woman with a broom. Its simplified form (妇), introduced later, symbolically shows a woman overcoming a mountain.
China’s most impactful strategy has been its systemic approach. For decades, the advancement of women has been integrated into the core of national five-year plans, with clear targets for education, health and economic participation. This ensures that national progress systematically benefits women, and their empowerment, in turn, fuels further progress. The lesson is clear: no nation can achieve sustainable development by harnessing only half its talent.
The results are visible in individual lives. Take Wang Fumei, a beneficiary of the state’s “Spring Bud Project” which has supported over 4.36 million girls. Forced to leave school at 15 for an arranged marriage, she fought for her right to return to the classroom and eventually joined the civil service. This two-way street, built on both policy and personal grit, creates a powerful multiplier effect. An educated woman tends to marry later, have healthier children, and is more likely to enter the formal workforce—breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty and creating a more prosperous society.
This belief in the female intellect is universal. Ms. Zhang’s students recite a pledge: “I was born to be a mountain, not a creek.” It echoes the defiance of 17th-century Swedish writer Sophia Elisabet Brenner, who argued for women’s intellectual equality, writing that “the only difference between he and she” lies in the body, not the mind.
As the world struggles to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals on education and gender equality, China’s experience offers a potent blueprint. It demonstrates that transformative change is achievable within a generation when personal courage is met with unwavering institutional commitment.
In 2023, the Spring Bud Project’s work was globally recognised with the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Yet, the truest measure of success lies not in awards, but in the quiet confidence of a girl in a classroom, certain that her future is hers to shape. It is this profound confidence—the ultimate goal of any equitable society—that such programmes aim to nurture.
Wen Ying
About the author
Wen Ying is a current affairs commentator who has contributed to EUobserver, San Francisco Examiner, Deccan Herald, etc.
The Chinese government has presented an ambitious ten-year plan where artificial intelligence will permeate all sectors of society by 2035 and become the “main engine for economic growth”.
China’s State Council has published a comprehensive plan aimed at making the country the world’s first fully AI-driven economy within eleven years. According to the government document presented at the end of August, artificial intelligence will have transformed Chinese society by 2035 and become the foundation for what is described as “a new phase of development in intelligent economy and intelligent society”.
The plan, which spans ten years, encompasses six central societal sectors that will be permeated by AI technology by 2027. These include science and technology, citizen welfare, industrial development, consumer goods, governance, and international relations.
The goal: 90 percent usage by 2030
According to the timeline, AI technology should reach a 90 percent usage rate by 2030 and practically become a new type of infrastructure. At this point, the technology is expected to have developed into a “significant growth engine for China’s economy”.
The strategy resembles the country’s previous “internet plus” initiative, which successfully integrated the internet as a central component in the Chinese economy.
By 2035, AI should according to the plan have “completely reworked Chinese society” and implemented a new phase of economic and social production. This is an ambitious goal with significant consequences, not only for the People’s Republic but for the entire world.
International cooperation in focus
The State Council emphasizes that AI should be treated as an “international public good that benefits humanity”. The plan highlights the importance of developing open source AI, supporting developing countries in building their own technology sectors, and the UN’s role as a leader in AI regulation.
Although China’s AI industry is growing rapidly, as exemplified by the open AI platform DeepSeek’s successes earlier this year, Chinese models still lag several months behind their American counterparts in terms of average performance. This is largely due to restrictions and barriers that Western countries have imposed.
However, the gap is steadily narrowing. At the end of 2023, American AI models performed better than Chinese ones in 13 percent of general reasoning tests. By the same time in 2024, this figure had dropped to 8.1 percent. In certain AI applications, China is already a world leader and has invested heavily in offering its services at low prices and in many cases completely free as open source.
The State Council’s ten-year plan aims to further reduce the lead by strengthening key areas such as fundamental model performance, security measures, data access, and energy management.
Whether Beijing can deliver on its massive goals with the help of sometimes unreliable technology remains to be seen. However, if other nationally coordinated plans are any indication, the country may face a comprehensive transformation.
For the first time in 66 years, the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing.
The extensive military parade marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with over 100 new domestically produced weapons systems – including nuclear missiles, hypersonic weapons and unmanned vehicles.
China conducted its second-ever military parade on Wednesday to mark Victory Day – 80 years after the end of World War II. The massive display at Tiananmen Square in Beijing became a demonstration of power where Chinese President Xi Jinping received 26 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The parade, witnessed by 50,000 spectators and 10,000 participating soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army, Navy and Air Force, marked the first time in 66 years that the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing. The last time this occurred was in 1959, during perhaps the most tense period of the Cold War.
Dressed in a gray Mao suit, Xi Jinping spoke from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. He focused on China’s victory over “Japanese aggression” in what he called the “global anti-fascist war”, but chose not to mention the United States by name despite the country’s decisive role in the war’s final stages.
— Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games, Xi declared and continued:
— The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity.
Photo: Kremlin/CC BY 4.0
Nuclear arsenal in focus
Al Jazeera correspondent Katrina Yu emphasized the historical significance of the speech from Beijing:
— It really is difficult to understate how much of this is a part of the national psyche, the psyche of the Communist Party that, in the previous 100 years, China was repressed, invaded and humiliated by foreign forces.
Over 100 types of domestically produced weapons rolled along Chang’an Avenue. Particular attention was given to the new nuclear-capable missiles. For the first time, submarine-based JL-3 missiles were also displayed, whose extended range theoretically allows the entire US mainland to be reached from the South China Sea without submarines needing to advance into the Pacific Ocean.
The new intercontinental ballistic missile DF-61 also made its debut. It is estimated to be over 20 meters long with a range exceeding 12,000 kilometers. Additionally, the DF-5C was presented, which may have a range over 20,000 kilometers, carry ten nuclear warheads and reach speeds over Mach 10.
The hypersonic missile YJ-21, called the “carrier killer”, was also presented. The weapon is said to be able to strike aircraft carriers at Mach 10 – ten times the speed of sound – at a distance of 2,000 kilometers.
Trump’s sarcastic reaction
US President Donald Trump reacted to the parade with a sarcastic post on Truth Social:
“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader”, he wrote and continued:
“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory… May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America”.
Photo: screenshot/Trump/Truth Social
The Kremlin later commented on Trump’s statement and briefly explained that “no one even had this in their thoughts”.
New warfare technology presented
During the parade, China showcased its investment in modern warfare technology. Unmanned surface vessels (USV), underwater drones and unmanned aerial vehicles were presented alongside the new LY-1 laser system for shooting down drones and missiles. According to China, the new HQ-29 air defense system can defend against hypersonic missiles – a claim that has yet to be verified.
“For Xi, the point is to reinforce the impression that the People’s Republic of China has arrived as a great power under his leadership. Another is the array of leaders at the parade, which suggests that the PRC cannot be isolated, and is unafraid of pressure and bullying, particularly from the United States”, comments Ian Chong, political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
Above the parade, the air force conducted flyovers with helicopters carrying banners with messages such as “Justice will prevail”, “Peace will prevail” and “The people will win”.
US deploys missile systems
China declared that all of the more than 100 weapon types displayed were domestically produced. Despite the Chinese economy slowing down, the country’s defense spending has increased by more than 7 percent for four consecutive years and now amounts to approximately 4.2 times Japan’s defense budget. The military balance in the region has thus shifted markedly and China is gaining increasingly greater military influence.
Unmanned watercraft on display. Photo: Xinhua
Parallel to this development, the US and Japan are conducting extensive military exercises together. The US Army will for the first time deploy its medium-range missile system Typhon in Japan during the Resolute Dragon 25 exercise taking place September 11-25. Typhon can launch both Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles from land.
In July, the US placed two new weapons systems at its base in Okinawa: the MADIS air defense system and the NMESIS robot system that can combat ships. Both systems will also be used on Ishigaki Island during the Japanese-American exercise and military activities in the region are expected to intensify in coming years.
Modi abstained
Military parades on Victory Day are a relatively new phenomenon under Xi Jinping’s era – the first was held in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary, and this year’s parade was thus only the second of its kind.
Despite friendly meetings with Xi Jinping and Putin during the SCO summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to leave China before the military parade.
According to analysts, this was partly to avoid offending Japan, but also to signal that New Delhi certainly has strategic alternatives to the US but simultaneously remains concerned about maintaining its Western partnerships and cooperation.
