(MENAFN) Chinese President Xi Jinping participated Thursday in a grand celebration commemorating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, state media reported.

Xi, who also serves as the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, attended the gala in Urumqi, the regional capital, according to a news agency.

He is the first Chinese president to take part in a founding anniversary ceremony in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

At the event, Xi joined local authorities and members of the public “from all ethnic groups and all walks of life.”

He arrived in Urumqi on Tuesday, heading a delegation that included Communist Party theoretician Wang Huning and Cai Qi, his chief of staff.

Established in October 1955, Xinjiang is one of China’s five autonomous regions with a considerable ethnic minority population.

The region is home to over 10 million Uyghurs, who are mainly Muslim.

The Turkic Muslim community, constituting about 45% of Xinjiang’s residents, has frequently alleged cultural, religious, and economic discrimination by China, claims Beijing denies.

Spanning roughly one-sixth of China’s total land area, Xinjiang sits at the historic Silk Road crossroads and currently serves as a strategic land corridor linking Beijing to the Arabian Sea through the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.

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