"We are all brothers and sisters", and "the Uighur people and the ethnic Han Chinese belong to the same family" … These are the words and phrases that have been most moving, enticing and used most frequently after bloody riots occurred on July 5th in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang in northwest China.

There were instances of the most brutal violence and many moving, encouraging scenes to highlight ethnic unity in Urumqi throughout the bloody riot on July 5th. When a gang of seven to eight thugs tried to force their way into a hospital, patients of Han ethnicity and Uighur and Kazak origins propped up the hospital gate to stop them; Abibula, a driver from the health bureau in Xinjiang camouflaged five people in his car but he himself was cudgeled black and blue. Akepur from the judicial section in the city's Tianshan district rescued two chased locals, one kid and the other adult, but he was beaten up twice and finally saved by police...

Xinjiang has been a great homeland inhabited by dozens of ethnic groups since ancient times, and people of varied ethnicities have lived in compact communities for many centuries. With a common history, they share the common belief and have forged an extremely close relationship among them.

People still remember very well that Ablaze adopted an abandoned baby girl of the Han ethnicity, who was only less than 10 days; and Anipa Alimahong now raises and supports 19 kids of varied ethnicities. She did not care about their origins since "they were all her kids" as she had once said.

Hence, such spirit of ethnic unity has undergone vicissitudes for centuries, is deep-rooted in the hearts of multi-ethnic people and goes on flowing in their hearts. The Han people cannot go without ethnic minority people nor can the minority people go without the Han people, or one minority people can go without other ethnic groups – This has become the consensus reached by people of all ethnicities across China.

In the contemporary world, clashes between nations or across regions come in thick and fast. A major reason is due to endless conflicts between different ethnicities with an ensuing direct aftermath of upheavals, turmoil and abject poverty. The cause for China to achieve social stability and economic growth is ascribed to the unbreakable ethnic unity and the awareness of its people that the destiny of an ethnic group hinges on the destiny of the entire Chinese nation and the development of an ethnic group is determined by the national prosperity. So, to attain the dignity and progress of ethnic groups and affluence for their homeland, it first of all hinges on the motherland's unity and prosperity.

Only with national unity and ethnic solidarity, can China forge ahead with every field of endeavor and, otherwise, the nation will subjugate, families will wreck and people suffer. Only with the ethnic unity, can Chinese society stabilize, its economy prospers and the material and cultural, socialist ethic levels of people of different ethnic groups in the country improve remarkably.

The July 5th Urumqi riot has once again proven that ethnic splitting force does not represent the interests of any particular ethnic group but is the common foe of the people of all ethnicities in China, as it sabotages the living and production environment of the multi-ethnic groups and jeopardizes the personal interest of all Chinese citizens.

"History has already indisputably proven that all is nothing but an extravagant talk with the absence of ethnic unity, said a veteran minority official, who has long been engaged in ethnic and religious affairs. In seizing the opportunity to bring about a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, painstaking efforts are needed to enhance the nation's cohesive power and particularly the great unity of all ethnic groups nationwide. In this sense, ethnic unity is related not only to the state sovereignty, state dignity and territorial integrity but also to the history, the reality of the present day and the future.

By People's Daily Online and contributed by PD senior desk-editor He Zhenhua

Special report: Urumqi Riot