The State Council Information Office on July 21 issued a white paper on historical matters concerning Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

China is a unified multiethnic country, and the various ethnic groups in Xinjiang have long been part of the Chinese nation. Throughout its long history, Xinjiang's development has been closely related to that of China, the white paper said.

However, in more recent times, hostile forces in and outside China, especially separatists, religious extremists and terrorists, have tried to split China and break it apart by distorting history and facts, the document said.

Xinjiang has long been an inseparable part of Chinese territory. Never has it been the so-called "East Turkistan." The Uygur ethnic group came into being through a long process of migration and integration, the white paper said, adding that it is part of the Chinese nation.

In Xinjiang, different cultures and religions coexist, and ethnic cultures have been fostered and developed in the embrace of the Chinese civilization. Islam is neither an indigenous nor the sole belief system of the Uygur people. It has taken root in the Chinese culture and developed soundly in China, the document said.