ISHAG Yang Xuehai (right) helps cut and serve a fresh watermelon for his guests from Pakistan. —Photo by the writer
AFTER landing at Beijing Capital Airport, it was a race against time to get to Terminal 2 to catch our flight to Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia. We were a group of eight journalists travelling to China’s autonomous regions of Ningxia and Xinjiang.
As the world continues to criticise Beijing over the imposition of religious restrictions and re-education of indigenous communities such as the Uyghurs, we were invited by the government to witness China’s endeavours to promote the economic and social development and cultural preservation of the ethnic groups in these regions.
Upon landing at Yinchuan Hedong International Airport, we were received by Ishag Yang Xuehai, an official from the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office, and his colleagues.
His name struck me as unique, so I decided to find out more about him and his background.
