At around 6 p.m. on July 26, a group of more than 800 officials and professionals stepped off planes at Urumqi Tianshan International Airport in Urumqi, right into the dry heat of summer in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. They are the 12th group assigned by central Party and government departments to share knowledge and best practices to help fast-track the region's development under a paired assistance program.

The newcomers represent over 130 departments and waiting representatives moved forward to shake hands and welcome them as family. The scene was both an arrival and a handover. As the program's 12th group was beginning a three-year assignment, members of the 11th group were preparing to return home. As part of the 12th contingent, more than 7,400 people had already arrived as of late May, dispatched by provinces and cities that have paired assistance relationships with Xinjiang.

China began operating paired assistance programs in 1979 and initiated the program in Xinjiang in 1997. The program matches central Party and government departments, state-owned enterprises directly administered by the Central Government, and designated provinces and municipalities with localities in Xinjiang, and provides personnel, funding and professional resources. More than 20,000 officials and professionals served as part of the first 11 rounds. Those taking part in the latest rotation are considering a question that has shaped the program since its inception: What should remain after an assistance team leaves?

Growing local strength 

Grown for its fruit, peel, seeds and tubers, gualou, also known as Chinese cucumber and Chinese snake gourd, is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. Cultivation of the vine is becoming established near the edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China's largest drifting desert, in Pishan County, Hotan Prefecture, an area once constrained by desertification and limited industrial infrastructure.

Before introducing it from Anhui Province in east China, agricultural specialists assessed whether it could adapt to the soil and climate of south Xinjiang.

"Experts from the Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted soil tests and confirmed that local conditions were suitable for growing gualou," said Feng Wei, an official dispatched from Anhui who, under the paired assistance program, has previously served as deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Committee of Zanggui Township in Pishan.

In addition to its medicinal value, the plant's extensive root system helps stabilize sandy soil, allowing it to address two local needs at once: increasing rural incomes and improving local ecology.

Since the project was launched in September 2023, Zanggui has established 4,467 hectares of gualou fields, generating an annual output value of 830 million yuan ($122 million) and creating employment for more than 2,600 local residents. It has also consolidated scattered plots, introduced water-saving irrigation and integrated crop cultivation with the township's windbreak and sand-control measures.

One person who has benefited from Zanggui's new industry is Tursun Qadir, who has worked for the township's gualou cultivation base for three years and now earns 4,500 yuan ($666) a month. His family also grows one hectare of gualou themselves. Their annual income has reached roughly 100,000 yuan ($14,800), enabling them to renovate their home and buy a car.

"Life is getting better," Tursun said.

The paired assistance program introduced not only a new crop, but also an entire industrial chain that includes seeds, cultivation techniques, irrigation systems, processing and market access. Reflecting a broader long-term shift in paired assistance from providing resources to strengthening capacity, farmers have been equipped with the knowledge and commercial links necessary to sustain the local gualou industry.

Care that stays 

In Turpan in north Xinjiang, a warm nickname tells a larger story about medical assistance.

In late 2022, doctors from Hunan Province successfully performed a cardiac stent procedure on a 94-year-old Uygur woman. When she awoke, she asked for the doctors' names. Unable to hear the answer clearly, she decided to call them all Doctor Mao, as Hunan was known to her as the home province of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

The medical team embraced the nickname. In May 2023, it launched the Red Pomegranate—Doctor Mao medical service initiative, turning one patient's affection into a broader commitment to the community. Chen Guodong, from the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of South China in Hengyang, Hunan, now serves as president of the Turpan People's Hospital. On one occasion, he arrived from Hunan in the afternoon, operated through the night and joined consultations the following morning.

"When I think of patients lining up early and calling us Doctor Mao, I no longer feel tired," he said.

The work has been measured in procedures and people. Over the last three years, assisted hospitals have introduced 159 medical techniques applied in Xinjiang for the first time. The local referral rate fell to 1.9 percent, meaning more patients can receive treatment close to home. Fifty-nine local medical specialists improved their skills and 34 became able to perform operations independently.

That last number captures the program's logic. A visiting surgeon can treat a limited number of patients during his or her service; a trained local team can heal thousands in the years ahead. The goal is to leave behind a professional team that cannot be taken away.

Education follows the same principle.

Xia Fan, Vice President of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) in Wuhan, Hubei Province, currently works at Xinjiang University in Urumqi under the paired assistance program. His mission is to promote educational cooperation, introduce higher-quality teaching models and help cultivate a locally rooted team of professionals who will be better equipped to contribute to Xinjiang's progress and prosperity.

At the Bole Senior High School in Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, teachers from Hubei have been working with local counterparts through classroom instruction, mentoring and joint research. As a result, all high school graduates last year reached the regional score line for undergraduate university admission.

Among the visiting teachers was Chen Jianshu, whose mother, Wang Qin, had also taught in Xinjiang under an assistance program. Their story, two generations of one family serving a shared purpose, is a demonstration of why the program cannot be understood through budgets alone. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), 89.2 percent of assistance project funds went to public wellbeing and 91.3 percent to local community projects. Yet the human value transcends the data: a patient treated near home, a young doctor operating independently, or a student seeing a university path open ahead.

Bonds beyond borders 

In Altay Prefecture, speedskating coach Li Haixia from Heilongjiang Province spent much of her three-year assignment beside a rollerskating track, correcting a child's posture or asking another to look straight ahead.

Li repeatedly gave up trips home to remain with her trainees. Under her guidance, young athletes from Altay have won 86 gold, 76 silver and 58 bronze medals in regional ice and snow competitions, the area's best results of all time. Fifteen athletes have been selected for regional teams. As her assignment neared its end, Li applied to stay.

"I cannot bear to leave the children, or this land that gives me strength," she said.

These kinds of bonds form in many areas where paired assistance programs operate. In Kuqa County, Aksu Prefecture, a once-muddy lane has become Qiuci Alley, which takes its name from the ancient name for the place. Renovated homes, workshops, guesthouses, music, dance and the smell of freshly baked naan now draw residents and visitors and one resident has converted part of his home into a teahouse where people of different ethnic groups meet over tea. An assistance team from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, supported the transformation.

These encounters give daily form to a national goal: fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and enhancing interaction, exchange and integration among different ethnic groups. The idea is often illustrated by a pomegranate, the many seeds of which sit closely together. In practice, it flourishes through the simple, everyday act of living, working and studying side by side.

The exchange moves in both directions. Young people from Xinjiang travel to other parts of China, while teachers, doctors, engineers and coaches travel to Xinjiang. Correspondence, study tours, professional networks and business partnerships continue after formal assignments end. Peng Cheng, a member of the outgoing 11th group, said the friendships built while working and living with people of different ethnic groups in Xinjiang had become one of the most valuable parts of his life.

For many departing participants, leaving does not mean saying goodbye to Xinjiang. Their suitcases contain naan, walnuts, red dates and handwritten letters pressed on them by local friends. The newcomers arrive with lesson plans, stethoscopes, research projects and unfinished ideas passed on by those before them.

At the Urumqi airport, the handshakes on the tarmac lasted only minutes but the relay they represent will run for another three years before the baton is passed on again. Its deepest purpose is not simply to cross the distance to Xinjiang, but to make that distance matter less, by leaving skills in local institutions, opportunity in the lives of families and affection strong enough to remain beyond the assignment. BR

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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