Huazhong Tu, Xinmei Zhou, & Qian Geng
The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is like a bright pearl embedded in China’s northwest frontier and located in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent. Its area of 1,664,900 square kilometers, accounting for about one-sixth of the country’s total land area, is breathtaking.
At home, Xinjiang is closely neighbouring Tibet, Qinghai, and Gansu, and they are hand in hand with them to build a magnificent landscape in the western part of the motherland.
In the neighbourhood, it borders eight countries, including Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, where diversified cultures exchange and collide, blossoming into a unique charm.
Xinjiang’s land border is more than 5,700 kilometers long, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s land border.
As China’s largest land area, the largest number of neighboring countries, and the longest land border of the provincial-level administrative regions, it shoulders a major geopolitical and economic development mission.
The land of Xinjiang is characterized by magnificent mountains and rivers. In the north, the Altai Mountains stand majestically, as if loyal guards, guarding the peace of this land; in the south, the Kunlun Mountain Range meanders and undulates like a dragon showing its majestic momentum; and the Tianshan Mountain Range runs through the center, just like a magnificent spine, dividing Xinjiang into two major regions in the north and south.
These three mountain ranges are not only the geographical demarcation line but also an important support for Xinjiang’s rich natural resources and diversified ecosystems. In this amazing land, there are also many remarkable geographical wonders.
The Tarim Basin, located in the south, covers an area of about 400,000 square kilometres, making it the largest basin in China.
Here, nature’s ingenious work has created a vast desert landscape. The Taklamakan Desert in the central part of the basin covers an area of about three hundred and thirty thousand square kilometers, not only the largest desert in China but also the second-largest flowing desert in the world.
When the wind howls, the sand dunes surge like waves, showing the majestic power of nature. As for the Junggar Basin in the north, it covers an area of about 300,000 square kilometres where vast grasslands and the Gobi are intertwined, presenting a different flavour.
Xinjiang is very far from the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the warmth of the oceans is difficult to reach, so precipitation is very scarce, while evaporation is extremely alarming, with an average annual evaporation of between 2,300 and 3,000 millimetres.
This disparity in water balance makes Xinjiang one of the most water-scarce regions in China. The distribution of water resources on this land shows great imbalance.
Between east and west, there are more in the west and less in the east; between north and south, there are more in the north and less in the south; and topographically, there are more mountains and fewer plains.
This unbalanced distribution situation, resulting in many areas of water stress, is a heavy yoke, seriously restricting economic and social development and ecological environment improvement.
Especially with the continuous development of the economy and population growth, the demand for water resources is increasing, and the contradiction between the supply and demand of water resources is becoming more and more prominent.
This has further increased the pressure on ecological water use, and the ecological functions of rivers, lakes, and wetlands have been affected as if they have lost their former vitality.
Xinjiang is also the hardest hit by desertification; it is one of the provinces and regions in China with the largest area of desertification, the widest distribution, and the most serious harm, where deserts and deserts occupy a considerable area.
The vast and boundless Taklamakan Desert and other large deserts are like sleeping behemoths, which make the wind and sand activities frequently staged. Sandstorms and other dusty weather from time to time rampages such fierce demons, and the ecological environment and people’s lives in the surrounding areas pose a serious threat.
Behind this, irrational human activities are even worse. Excessive reclamation, as in the skin of the earth cutting a wound; overgrazing, so that the grassland has lost the vitality of the past; indiscriminate logging, cutting off the green veins of nature.
These actions have destroyed vegetation and intensified the process of land desertification, with land productivity declining sharply and ecosystems degrading unknowingly. Xinjiang’s climate is a typical temperate continental arid climate.
The arid environment with little rainfall has set up numerous obstacles to the stability and development of the ecosystem.
These extreme weather events have a strong impact on the structure and function of the ecosystem. The uncertainty of ecological security has increased, and the future of Xinjiang is facing a serious challenge.
In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to ecological security in Xinjiang and has taken a two-pronged approach to policy formulation and practical action.
On the one hand, it has continued to improve the system of ecological protection laws and regulations, such as implementing the Measures for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and amending the Regulations on Environmental Protection of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which have provided solid legal safeguards for ecological protection.
At the same time, it has comprehensively promoted the forest chief system and the river/lake chief system and built up a strict ecological protection responsibility system.
On the other hand, it has vigorously implemented ecological restoration and governance projects. In the area of sand prevention and treatment, we have fought the battle of blocking the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, pushed forward the locking of desert edges through various modes, and set up sandy land closure protection zones and national desert parks to effectively curb the process of desertification.
In terms of water resource management, it has scientifically coordinated water use for ecology, production, and living, replenished water for the Tarim River and other river basins, and ensured the healthy development of forest and grassland ecology.
In addition, it actively promotes the restoration and protection of grassland ecology and implements the grazing ban and grass-animal balance system.
In order to realize the sustainable development of ecological security in Xinjiang, the Chinese government is actively promoting green development.
In the field of energy, it has accelerated energy transformation and industrial upgrading, added a large number of new energy installations to Xinjiang’s power grid, built the nation’s largest Kuqa photovoltaic power generation direct green hydrogen project, and pushed forward the development of green silicon-based industries and the creation of green mines.
The transportation sector has introduced a green development implementation plan and is committed to the formation of structurally optimized, intensive, and efficient green and low-carbon modes of transportation.
For example, the city of Karamay has built a 10,000-acre sea of forests by carrying out sand prevention and sand control ecological construction after repairing water diversion projects; Bohu County has implemented special management during the fishing ban and promoted ecological fishery models to protect the fishery resources of Lake Bosten effectively. Together, these initiatives have laid a solid foundation for ecological security in Xinjiang.
With time, Xinjiang’s natural environment will undoubtedly improve and become more stunning. Xinjiang will keep moving forward on the path of ecological construction as long as the idea of ecological protection continues to deepen and science and technology advance.
Strengthening ecological protection in Xinjiang will benefit China’s western neighbour Pakistan as well as ecological cooperation, communication, and exchange between the two countries. Building a community of human destiny between China and Pakistan will undoubtedly benefit both countries.
*The writers are scholars at Baize Institute for Strategy Studies, Southwest University of Political Science and Law,China.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the publication.
