What lessons can South Africa learn from China’s Xinjiang province?

China's Xinjiang Foreign Affairs Office last week hosted a conference to promote the region's economic and social progress. South Africa’s young democracy is reaching a stage of maturity and will soon need to form a new vision for how it wants to navigate the rest of the 21st century. The country’s driving policy has been the National Development Plan 2030, and the end of the decade comes with an evaluation of how close it came to the objectives laid out in that document. Through South Africa’s involvement in Brics, it has direct access to a leadership bloc that has addressed some of the issues still plaguing those south of Limpopo: housing, security, education and infrastructure. Although still viewed with scepticism by the West, China may offer a proven roadmap to laying the foundations of societal efficiency. Ideology aside, China has shown that focused administration of public funds and resources can trigger a sweeping positive chain reaction. Xinjiang’s progress Guests from across the world were invited to Urumqi in Xinjiang province last week to attend a conference promoting the region’s success. The Xinjiang Foreign Affairs Office facilitated tours of factories, education facilities, and key industrial sites, while highlighting strides in social cohesion. At the turn of the century, Xinjiang was among the poorest regions in China, but since 2012, the Chinese government has allocated the equivalent of R9.6 trillion to the region for social and infrastructure development. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has since built 9 000km of railways, 230 000km of highways and increased air travel to over 600 domestic and international routes via multiple modern airports The region has been China’s leading producer of cotton for three decades, with the government claiming over 95% of all ploughing, planting and harvesting processes are now automated. In 2026 so far, at least 180 new infrastructure projects either broke ground or were approved for implementation as part of a R3 trillion investment drive. While managed almost exclusively through top-down central planning committees, roughly 40% of project work is reserved for local small- to medium-sized enterprises. “This historic success of all endeavours of Xinjiang and all the epoch-making changes are attributed to the leadership of the Communist Party of China. “It is the result of assistance from all parts of the country and the hard work of the ethnic groups in Xinjiang. They fully demonstrate the tremendous strengths of the socialist system,” the organisers boasted. China’s ‘win-win’ policies Vice-President of the Turkey-China Friendship Foundation Ersin Ercin hailed Xinjiang as one of the “most remarkable economic and social transformations in modern history”, claiming “100s of millions” had been lifted from poverty. “This success is the result of long-term planning, continuity of policy and the capacity to turn a national objective into concrete results,” said Ercin. “These achievements did not happen by accident. They required vision, planning and enormous investment in people and infrastructure. “And above all, they required the ability to think not only about the next years, but about the next generations,” Ercin said. Deputy Secretary-General of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association, Ng Chin Long, explained that China’s growth and cooperation with the world was strictly policy-driven. “For us, for foreigners, you need to see the policy; what is the policy, what is the direction? Then we look for opportunity or we look for the common ground,” Long told The Citizen. Long admitted that large government-run corporations dominated the development sphere, but said recent years had seen growing involvement from small and medium enterprises. “In the long run, this is free trade. You can’t avoid the challenges and competition, but from there we see how we can cooperate. “They are good friends to everybody. They are willing to share. We need to look at the win-win part. You win, I win,” said Long. One of the numerous large-scale housing developments that line Chinese motorways. Picture: Jarryd Westerdale Leadership and education Xinjiang offers the longest stint of free education in China, from kindergarten at age three, to the end of high school at age 18. President of the China-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, and frequent visitor to South Africa, Jacques Bortuzzo urged the country to learn from the Chinese. “I think you need to start with education because the Chinese have a discipline now that they have been trained in for many, many years, and it starts with education. “It is not something that is going to take a few years; it is going to take a few generations. Unless you do that, I think it gets very, very complicated,” Bortuzzo told The Citizen. Tanzanian academic and economist Hildebrand Shayo explained how the Southern African Development Community (SADC) could learn from China. “Since we have this relationship aimed at win-win, it is about how we replicate the ideas, the development they have achieved and contextualise it to our local setting, because we differ in terms of culture, in terms of mindset, and even in terms of how we think we can develop our people,” Shayo told The Citizen. He urged the region to work together and for leaders to value the youth or risk squandering their potential. “It’s time for African leaders to see young people as assets, not as a liability to the economy. “But it depends on the type of leaders we put in place. If we elect leaders who will come into power through the back door, it is going to be a big problem,” Shayo said. ‘Who is participating in the growth?’ South Africa was represented at the conference by acting Executive Dean of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public & International Affairs, Dr Edith Phaswana. One of Xinjiang’s prominent draws is its diversity, owing to its proximity to Central Asia and historical prominence along the Silk Road, with Phaswana sharing her insights on building a diverse society. “Ethnic unity and shared development cannot be separated. Unity becomes credible when everyone experiences it in their daily lives. “Growth matters, but we must also ask who is participating in the growth; who’s producing, whose region is advancing, and whether historically disadvantaged communities in Xinjiang province are gaining,” Phaswana advised. Noting the parallels in multicultural societies, she urged all governments to instil social confidence in their people while preparing them for an ever-changing world. “A society that respects cultural inheritance while expanding scientific and technological capability equips its young people to move forward without being required to forfeit where they come from. “Policies are judged not by their intentions, but by their implementation. “New generations, new technologies, they will bring new contestations and new complexities, so we must always be prepared because all these challenges will ask how we will respond,” Phaswana said.