Full coverage: China’s Leaders

BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has replied to a daughter of Kurban Tulum who was twice received by the late Chairman Mao Zedong, underlining ethnic solidarity and efforts to build a bright future for Xinjiang under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"I am glad to learn that you are still in good health when you are nearly 90 years old, and your family, with over 100 members, live a happy life," Xi said in the letter to Tohtihan Kurban, the eldest daughter of Kurban Tulum.

Tulum was a peasant-turned CPC member who wished to ride a donkey to visit Chairman Mao in the 1950s from Xinjiang to Beijing, before he later met with Mao.