New Xinjiang Boss Vows No Reversal to Stability-First Policy (1)

Xinjiang’s newly appointed leader pledged to maintain a focus on social stability in China’s far western region, where human rights practices have fed international criticism and boycotts.

Ma Xingrui, 62, who was named Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang in recent days, pledged in a speech following his appointment Saturday to turn Chinese President Xi Jinping’s blueprint for the region into reality. The government would “firmly promote continuous and long-term social stability in Xinjiang and never allow any reversal for the hard-won stability,” Ma said, according to the official Xinjiang Daily newspaper.

Ma Xingrui in 2019.

Photographer: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Ma -- previously governor of Guangdong, ...