URUMQI - China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Friday held a video conference with people from Xinjiang who are living in Kazakhstan.

Those who attended the online exchange event in Xinjiang spoke of the prosperity and development of Xinjiang, and refuted rumors concerning Xinjiang fabricated by anti-China forces in the United States and other countries in the West.

Nurlan Abdumanjin, chairman of the Xinjiang Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said Xinjiang is currently in the best period of prosperity and development in its history.

Xinjiang has reported no violent or terrorist attack for nearly five consecutive years, realizing the safety and stability long sought by people of all ethnic groups, Nurlan Abdumanjin said.

In recent years, Xinjiang has safeguarded social harmony and stability in accordance with the law, promoted high-quality economic development, continuously guaranteed and improved people's livelihoods, and protected the freedom of religious belief of people of all ethnic groups in accordance with the law, the official said.

The cultures of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have been protected and passed on, and have prospered in the garden of Chinese culture, said Gulisinyi Tuhan, a practitioner of the Kazakh folk art Aken Aytes, an example of national intangible cultural heritage, in Tacheng, Xinjiang.

The fallacy of cultural extinction in Xinjiang created by anti-China forces is completely groundless, Gulisinyi Tuhan said.

Arxi Abuzalbki, deputy imam of a village mosque in the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, said the normal religious activities of local believers are protected by law. Some people abroad claim that "Xinjiang restricts freedom of religious belief," which is an out-and-out lie, Arxi Abuzalbki said.

Surka Azati, who currently studies at a university in Kazakhstan, said he is sincerely proud to see the beautiful changes in Xinjiang. After graduating, he will return to China to actively participate in the construction of the Belt and Road and contribute to the construction of a beautiful Xinjiang, he said.