A Chinese white paper on ethnic equality, unity and development in Xinjiang said the country has granted almost 1.7 trillion yuan (266.6 billion U.S. dollars) to the region over the past 60 years.

The white paper, titled "Historical Witness to Ethnic Equality, Unity and Development in Xinjiang" and issued by the State Council Information Office on Thursday, said the financial support has laid the foundation for Xinjiang's development.

According to the paper, from 1955 to 1978, the country subsidized Xinjiang with 7.19 billion yuan accumulatively. With hefty state funds, many major infrastructure and other industrial projects in the region have been completed, including the Lanzhou-Urumqi Railway and the Karamay and Tarim oilfields.

The paper said that talents have been trained and provided for Xinjiang. In the 1980s, a cooperative program was initiated between Xinjiang and more than 100 institutions of higher learning in other parts of the country, with the total enrollment eventually growing from 800 to 6,800.

By 2014, these institutions had enrolled, accumulatively, 54,000 students of ethnic minority origins from Xinjiang, in addition to providing the autonomous region with 21,000 undergraduates and junior college graduates, it added.

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