Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Sun Chunlan has called for efforts to improve ethnic unity and promote the "Chinese national community" in Xinjiang.
Sun, head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during her four-day inspection tour, which ended Thursday, to the northwestern autonomous region.
During her visit, Sun talked with experts and scholars in Urumqi and visited local officials, model citizens and veteran CPC members in south Xinjiang's Kashgar and Aksu.
She said more should be done to reinforce the ideological, material and social basis for ethnic unity in Xinjiang, and called on officials to promote unity and improve people's livelihoods and foster closer ties between the CPC and the public.
Sun paid a visit to an economic development zone, an industrial park, an agricultural base and a school in Xinjiang and talked with workers, farmers, and teachers and students there.
She also visited local religious figures at Id Kah Mosque, China's largest mosque, in the city of Kashgar, and thanked them for their "important contributions to maintaining national unification, ethnic solidarity and religious harmony."
She also expressed hope that devotees will promote the relationship between religion and society and oppose extremism.
The official also visited a unit of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
