News Analysis: China's Xinjiang is more dynamic, attractive amid increasing openness

URUMQI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Xinjiang in northwest China is seeing increased vitality across the board as the region accelerates efforts to build core areas of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through broader opening-up.

The 2025 (China) Eurasia Commodity and Trade Expo recently concluded in Urumqi, the regional capital. The five-day fair was one of the latest examples of Xinjiang's increasingly open and dynamic development, attended by 1,800 exhibitors from 50 countries and regions, including first-time exhibitors from four countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Zambia, Comoros and Senegal.

A vast region that borders Central Asian countries, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has enhanced its connectivity with the world significantly in recent years, boosting mutually beneficial cooperation and people-to-people exchange, driven by the BRI.

In addition to the dozens of freight trains that enter and exit Xinjiang on average each day, the region's air transport is expanding rapidly. In the first half of this year, seven new international charter cargo flight routes were opened between Urumqi and foreign cities such as Istanbul, Belgrade and Addis Ababa, raising the region's total number of international air freight routes to 26, according to Xinjiang Airport Group. In the first five months of this year, the number of air routes the company operates increased by 115, or 26.5 percent year on year