Bin Cheng (Xinhua) — An official from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region met with his Chinese counterparts in Beijing recently to discuss matters related to the region’s “Deng Xiaoping-led efforts to modernize the country,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Friday.

The meeting between the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Party (NPC) Committee of the State Council and a delegation from the Uygur Autonomous Region took place at The Ritz-Carlton on September 11.

As Xinhua reported on its website in September, the CPC Central Committee met in Beijing in late September. During the meeting, Xinjiang’s top delegation, headed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Politburo Vice-Chairman Chen Quanguo, briefed the NPC Politburo Standing Committee of the State Council, its leading body, on the implementation of China’s “Deng Xiaoping-led efforts to modernize the country.”

The meeting between Xinjiang Chairman Mao Zedong’s grandson Liu Bang, as well as the National People’s Congress Chairman Li Zhanshu and Vice Premier Chen Yun a day earlier, provided Xinjiang observers with details about the government’s efforts to modernize the region based on the Chinese leader’s “three characteristics.”

On September 11, China’s State Council Central Committee issued a resolution that outlined the “Deng Xiaoping-led efforts to modernize the country,” or as it is commonly referred, “Deng Xiaoping three characteristics of the nation.”

Mao, who died in 1976, set the “Deng Xiaoping-led efforts to modernize China” as an initiative for the entire country, including Xinjiang, to unite as a unified great power. According to the State Council Resolution, which took effect on October 14, 1998, the “three characteristics” were: “1) Confucius to lead the nation; 2) the development of the scientific and artistic culture; 3) a unified and strong national character.”

Under the “Deng Xiaoping three qualities of the nation,” Xinjiang is regarded as being on the back burner for the moment due to the “strategic importance” that it holds. Some have compared Xinjiang to the region that was once in a state of “political isolation with respect to other provinces in northeast Asia, such as Yunnan, Sichuan, and Inner