Great Western Development in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region: a cultural remake of a cultural remake?

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Notes

1. Ningxia accounts for less than 1% of the total area of the West – even excluding Inner Mongolia and Guangxi. Aside from Hainan, China's other smaller provincial level units are all municipalities – Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. This paper benefited from my participation in a workshop organised by the Institute for International Studies by the University of Tecchnology, Sydney and the Institute of Asian Affairs, Hamburg, 8–10 May 2003 and I wish to thank Professor David S. G. Goodman, Dr Werner Draguhn and their respective staffs as well as the participants for their valuable contribution.

2. Gediqu chengzhen jumin jiating shouzhi jiben qingkuang (the basic urban family income conditions in each region) from the National Bureau of Statistics website http://www.stats.gov.cn/was40/detail accessed 7 March 2003. Anhui's figure was 588.33 yuan and Ningxia was 588.44 yuan. Neighbouring Shaanxi was 624.54 yuan and Gansu was 602.65 yuan. Tibet was excluded. Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, and Guangdong all surpassed 1000 yuan.

3. As one sign of this when provincial branch banks of the People's Bank of China were revoked in 1998, Ningxia was put under the Xi'an interprovincial branch which covers Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. ‘Wen Jiabao Views Central Bank Reform’, 17 November 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-321.

4. For details on the poverty levels a few years ago see Peter Ho, ‘The Four Wastelands Auction Policy: Removing the Rural-Urban Divide or Another Commandist Mass Campaign?: The Case of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’, China Information, vol. 14, no. 1, 2000, pp. 3–4 (of pdf file) and Peter Ho, ‘Rangeland Degradation in North China Revisited? A Preliminary Statistical Analysis to Validate Non-Equilibrium Range Ecology’, Journal of Development Studies, vol. 37, no. 3, 2001, p. 105.

5. According to Dru Gladney, Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996, Chapter III: ‘There were reported Hui uprisings in Ningxia shortly after 1949 and during the Great Leap Forward. In 1952, the “April 2” and “April 4” uprisings took place in Guyuan (now southern Ningxia) and Zhangjiachuan, Gansu, led by Ma Zhenwu's Jahriyya order. Other local uprisings by Hui followed, disenchanted by the failed promises for religious freedom and autonomy. … In Ningxia, Ma Zhenwu supposedly issued pierhan (“letters of introduction to the afterworld”) for those who might fall in battle defending the mosques, Daotang, and tomb waqf lands that were being confiscated under land reform. Labelled the “protecting the Gongbei” movement, it gained wide support, before it was finally crushed on June 1 during another attempt at local control. Ma Zhenwu was arrested in 1958 and publicly criticized in the news media throughout the country as a “counter-revolutionary” and exploitative “religious landlord,” due to his control over the Sufi order's large wagf holdings. Ma Zhenwu died in prison, but was posthumously rehabilitated in August 1983 as a victim of “leftist radicalism”.’

6. David S. G. Goodman, ‘The Politics of the West: Equality, Nation-Building and Colonisation’, in François Godemont, ed., La Chine et son Occident [China and its Western Frontier]. Paris: Centre asie ifri, 2002.

7. ‘New Column on Provincial Development’, 21 April 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-111 gives figures showing increased infrastructure investment from 1996 to 1998. ‘Ningxia Region Invests More in Infrastructure’, 24 August 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-236 pointed out there were 22 key projects underway. ‘Key Projects Improve Lifestyle of Muslims’, 6 September 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-249. ‘Ningxia's GDP Growth Hits 8.5% in 1998’, 11 March 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0311.

8. ‘Ningxia Region to Tame Huang He Section’, 16 January 1999, FBIS-CHI-99-016. ‘Engineers Plan Major Projects To Reduce Huang He Silt’, 5 July 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0704.

9. ‘Science, Technology Playing Bigger Role in Ningxia’, 31 January 1999, FBIS-CHI-99-031. ‘Ningxia Grain Output Reaches 2.9 Billion Kg in 1998’, 11 March 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0311.

10. ‘Ningxia Reports on Anticorruption Results’, 15 March 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-074. ‘Commentary on Strictly Administering Police’, 7 July 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-188. ‘Ningxia Bans Army, Police Business Activities’, 14 August 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-226.

11. ‘First Village for Resettlers in Poverty-Relief Plan’, 31 August 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-243. The project described here in Guyuan began in 1995.

12. ‘Ningxia Deputies Urge East-West Cooperation’, 10 March 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-069.

13. ‘Ningxia's Mao Rubai on East-West Cooperation’, 12 October 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-285.

14. In 1998, the Netherlands also provided funds. ‘Foreign Funds Help Agriculture in Muslim City of Wuzhong’, 5 July 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-186. Kuwait also provided funds for what was said to the biggest aid to the poor water conservation project in China. ‘Kuwait Lauds Economic Cooperation With China’, 17 July 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-198; ‘Kuwait-Funded Irrigation Project Progressing in Ningxia’, 8 August 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-220. ‘Kuwait Provides Loan for Ningxia Irrigation Project,’ 23 June 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0622. ‘Ningxia Progresses in Sino-German Afforestation Project’, 2 April 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0402.

15. ‘Sino-Japanese Friendship Forest Built in Ningxia’, 8 September 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0907.

16. ‘Economic Cooperation Said Booming in West China’, 8 August 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-220.

17. ‘Ningxia Leaders on Economy, Stability’, 20 March 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-079

18. ‘Ningxia To Open Up Wider to Outside World’, 23 April 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-113. In another example, Ningxia decided to give special help to the disabled among their poor as the percentage of poor disabled climbed since poverty alleviation programmes had offered greater help to those not handicapped. ‘Ningxia to Help Disabled “Shake Off” Poverty by 2000’, 4 May 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-124.

19. ‘jianchi yitiao zhidao fangzhen, zhugong wuxiang mubiao, shishi liuda zhanlue, fanzhan qida youshi tesi chanye’ From Jingji ribao (Economic Daily), 24 February 2000, http://www.enviroinfo.org.cn/Economy_and_Environment/Regional_Development/b022935_en.htm

20. According to ‘Trans-Regional Gas Pipeline Begins Operations’, 9 October 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-282, this process began when a natural gas pipeline began supplying a fertiliser factory in Yinchuan.

21. ‘Ningxia chutai jiakuai gongyehau jincheng ijian’ [Ningxia produces an opinion for speeding up industrialization , Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net (19 March 2003). http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03031902.htm accessed 19 March 2003.

22. Arguably, Mao Rubo, secretary of the CPC Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Committee put it in the most politically correct terms in the autumn of 1998: ‘Since the 15th CPC Congress, the CPC Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Committee has formulated a cross-century development strategy on the basis of taking careful account of Ningxia's realities. To enable a new Ningxia with initial prosperity and civilization to move into the 21st century in a comprehensive manner, we will strive to do a good job of carrying out work in all areas, do our utmost to proceed with work in all areas, focus on economic construction, and actively seek and work hard to cultivate new economic growth points for achieving rapid economic development; fully exploit agriculture's strengths and vigorously proceed with industrialization of agriculture so as to turn agriculture into our region's sector with the most advantages, greatest vitality, and best development prospects and to turn the industry of processing agricultural and sideline products into the most important pillar of the region's economy; vigorously support advantage-enjoying industries, advantage-enjoying enterprises, and advantage-enjoying products, concentrate on revitalizing such pillar industries as the petrochemical, metallurgical, machine-building, building materials, and pharmaceutical industries; vigorously develop the non-state-owned economic sector so that the non-state-owned economic sector can make greater contributions to the economic development of nationality regions; accelerate scientific and technological progress, transform the region's economy from being resource-directed to being both resource-directed and market-directed, emphasize the leadership role of science and technology, and achieve leaping development. We should give a high degree of attention to nationality region's work of opening up to the outside world and use projects as leaders to acquire more capital, technology, trained personnel, and advanced management experience so as to achieve the takeoff of the region's economy.’ ‘Mao Rubo on Nationality Regional Autonomy’, 18 November 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-322.

23. ‘China's Strategy of Developing the West and Hong Kong's Opportunities’ GC. comm. (December 2000–January 2001), pp. 16–17. http://www.ahk.org.hk/Archive/01_01_china.pdf (From the Bank of China Group Survey, vol. IV, no. 4, October 2000, http://www.tdctrade.com/econforum/boc/boc001102.htm).

24. For example, the central in 1998 announced a plan to help Ningxia and eight other western provincial level units build primary and secondary schools – ‘Daily Report’, 7 May 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-127. It appears that most of the 290 million yuan share that Ningxia got was spent on education infrastructure such as buildings in nine poverty counties.

25. ‘More Beijing Households to Use Natural Gas in 1998’, 15 March 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-074. ‘Ningxia Coal Exports Rise at Annual Rate of 46 Percent’, 9 April 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-099.

26. For the past several years, Ningixa has been short of electricity. Lian Xiaofang ‘Dianli gongyin duanque yi xiandian 1.42 yiqianwa shi Zizhiqu zhengfu zhaoji xianguan bumen shangtao duice’ . Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net , http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032001.htm (20 March 2003). According to this article, there has been no new investment in electricity generation between 1997 and 2002. Growth of demand has been going at a 1.5 million to 20 milllion kilowatts per annum and purchase of electricity from other provinces on the northwest net has become more difficult. The generators in Ningxia are getting older and breakdown is more common. Power cuts are frequent and it seems that Yinchuan, Shizuishan, and Wuzhong have felt this problem the most. As a sign of energy problems, according to ‘Shizuishan gongdianju quanli baozheng kanghan dajing yongdian’, , Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net , http://www.news.nx.cn/20030320/news1213.htm (20 March 2003) the Shizuishan electricity board had to prioritise energy for well drilling during the spring drought of 2003. This is in spite of standard reports a few years early of great energy potential like ‘Ningxia Becomes Leading Energy Base in PRC’, 7 September 1999, FBIS-CHI-1999-0906.

27. Sylvie Démurger, Jeffrey D. Sachs, et al., ‘Geography, Economic Policy and Regional Development in China’, Center for International Development at Harvard University Working Paper No. 77 (2001), p. 20. Qinghai's move up and move down was somewhat more drastic than Ningxias. The study also showed that Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Guizhou were weak throughout the period of PRC rule.

28. Tschang Chi-Chu, ‘China's Provinces All Grew Faster Than National Average in 2002’, Bloomber News (on line), 05 February 2003. http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle = Economies&s1 = blk&tp = ad_topright_econ&T = markets_box.ht&s2 = blk&bt = ad_position1_economies&box = ad_box_all&tag = economy&middle = ad_frame2_economies&s = APj.jvRWAQ2hpbmEn. The title really tells the story here.

29. ‘Shengshi jinchukou zongzhi biao January–October 2002’ 2002/01–10, http://www.moftec.gov.cn/table/jcktj/fss/fss2002_10.html

30. Arguably Tibet and Qinghai are in similarly weak positions.

31. The poverty counties are: Tongxin, Yanchi (Yin'nan Prefecture); and Xiji, Haiyuan, Guyuan, Longde, Jingyuan, and Pengyang (Guyuan Prefecture).

32. ‘Social and poverty impacts of land degradation in the Western Region, Appendix 1’, Asian Development Bank, pp. 1–2. http://www.adb.org/Projects/PRC_GEF_Partnership/soc_pov_impacts.pdf

33. Sylvie Démurger, Jeffrey D. Sachs, et al., ‘Geography, Economic Policy and Regional Development in China’ Center for International Development at Harvard University Working Paper No. 77, 2001, p. 6.

34. http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2002/vol34_3/go_west.asp

35. ‘Technical Assistance to the People's Republic of China for Preparing the Ningxia-Shapotou Water Resources Development Project’ Asian Development Bank, 10 August 2000. R160-00.

36. ‘Foreign Capital Helps Promote Agriculture in Ningxia’, 5 June 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-156.

37. According to ‘Rural Industrialization Takes Shape in Ningxia’, 20 April 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-110 there are ten production bases for grain, vegetables, dairy products, and barley for making beer in the Huang River area covering over 200 000 hectares of land.

38. Zhang Sulan ‘Yin Huang guanqu zhongzhi jiegou fasheng bianhua’ Ningxia Wang* Ningxia ribao zonghe xinwen wang (21 March 2003.) http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/gdxw/03032103.htm accessed 21 March 2003.

39. According to Guowuyuan Fazhan Yanjiu Zongxin, et al., Xibu dakaifa zhinan: tongji xinxi zhuanji (A guide to development of the West: statistics and information volume) Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 2000, p. 21, as of 1998, the AR accounted for 2.6% of the total cultivated land (yinong huangdi ) in the Western Region. The AR did contain 4.1% of the easily cultivated wasteland, which suggests greater room for agricultural development than most places in the West.

40. Currently the central government allows Ningxia to take out a little over 12% of the Huang River water that flows through the AR for irrigation. It is not likely that this percentage will increase much.

41. Tian Li ed. ‘Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu yaoqiu gedi chixu kanghan quebao chunguan’, (The Autonomous Region's People's Government requests all areas to continue to resist drought and preserve the spring irrigation supply Wang* Ningxia ribao zonghe xinwen wang (14 March 2003.) http://203.207.198.66/jjyw/nx031401.htm accessed 14 March 2003.

42. Guowuyuan Fazhan Yanjiu Zongxin, et al., Xibu dakaifa zhinan: tongji xinxi zhuanji (A guide to development of the West: statistics and information volume), Beijing: Zhongguo shehui Chubanshe, 2000, p. 424.

43. ‘Ningxia yao zai xibu dakaifazhong da you zuowei’ (Ningxia must have a big role in the Great west development/ in Guowuyuan Fazhan Yanjiu Zongxin, et al., Xibu dakaifa zhinan: tongji xinxi zhuanji (A guide to development of the West: statistics and information volume), Beijing: Zhongguo shehui Chubanshe, 2000, p. 432

44. ‘Ningxia Encourages Housing Development’, 19 October 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-292.

45. 2002 http://210.72.52.82/ztyj/200211200015.htm The line used in this survey is 200 yuan per annum for Yinchuan, 180 yuan for Shizuishan and 160 yuan for the irrigated areas and 150 yuan for the mountainous areas.

46. Zhongguo gaikuang: ‘Ningxia Huizu Zizhiqu’ ( General conditions in China: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), n.d. China Development Gateway http://www.chinagate.com.cn/china-gaikuang/west12/west12-nx.htm accessed 13 March 2003.

47. ‘First State Development Zone Built in Ningxia’, People's Daily, 14 October 2001. Internet site: http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200110/14/eng20011014_82238.html

48. Jiang Peng, ‘Zhongguo boerdo guangxia jianiang ziwei ruhe? Boxi xingzhi bobo-chanpin yao chuguo you wolai tuixiao’, Xinxiaosibao, no. 47, http://www.nx.cninfo.net/xbdkf/kaifajishi/index.htm

49. Ma Heliang ‘Ningxia wugonghai chanpin chandi huanjing jiance riqu guifan’, Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032006.htm (20 March 2003).

50. For example, Wang Kaibin ‘”Laoshu” heshi fa xinji’, Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032005.htm (20 March 2003).

51. Sad stories of inability to market furs raised in Guyuan even appear in a Xinhua report: Wang Kaibin Shanqu nongmin buken shichang fengxian’, Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032007.htm (20 March 2003).

52. ‘Yinchuan Shi jingshen wenming jianshe zhongdian shenhua sixiang huodong’, Yinchuan wanbao, http://www.nx.cninfo.net/xbdkf/kaifajishi/index.htm

53. Wang Jianjun ‘Liu Hui zai Pingluo Yanchi diaoyanshi zhichu xiangzhen xingzheng quhua tiaozheng yao lizu dangqian zhaoyan changyuan’. Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032002.htm (20 March 2003).

54. Italian Trade Commission, Beijing Office, ‘Economic Profile of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’, April 2001, p. 6. http://www.ice.it/estero2/pechino/profningxia.pdf

55. Joseph B. R. Whitney, China: Area, Administration, and Nation Building. Chicago: University of Chicago Department of Geography Research Series No. 123, 1970 coined this term of extra-ecumenical China to refer to areas outside of China Proper.

56. ‘Zhongguo gaikuang: Ningxia Huizu Zizhiqu’ ( General conditions in China: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), n.d. China Development Gateway http://www.chinagate.com.cn/china-gaikuang/west12/west12-nx.htm accessed 13 March 2003.

57. At times in history, the province of Ningxia included a larger area, much of it now in Inner Mongolia. For an example see Peter Ho, ‘The Myth of Desertification of China's Northwestern Frontier: The Case of Ningxia Province 1929–1958’, Modern China, vol. 26, no. 3, 2000, pp. 349–50.

58. Wang Jianjun, ‘Zhao Yanjie pointed out that we have to quicken the development of Xihu and by year end must entice tourists’. Ningxia ribao, 30 January 2003. http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03013002.htm

59. Zheng Zheng, ‘Longtou yining reshui jioulai sheyoucheng jinshihu jumin xiangshou taiyangneng’, Xinxiaoxibao, no. 46, http://www.nx.cninfo.net/xbdkf/kaifajishi/index.htm

60. From ‘Baohu shengtai huanjing wei xibu da kaifa chuangzao lianghaode waibu huanjing’, Yinchuan wanbao, http://www.nx.cninfo.net/xbdkf/kaifajishi/index.htm

61. Guowuyuan Fazhan Yanjiu Zongxin, et al., Xibu dakaifa zhinan: tongji xinxi zhuanji (A guide to development of the West: statistics and information volume), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 2000, p. 435.

62. ‘Nomadic Herding to Be Banned in NW China Region’ Xinhuanet (26 August 2002). China Development Gateway http://211.147.20.14/chinagate/focus/west/news/i001/20020826ban.html accessed 12 March 2003.

63. Richard Louis Edmonds, Patterns of China's Lost Harmony: A Survey of the Country's Environmental Degradation and Protection. London: Routledge, 1994, p. 106.

64. Guojia Tongjiju ed. Zhongguo xibu tongji niangjian 2001 Beijing: Zhongguo Tongji Chubanshe, 2001, p. 56 makes the unbelievable claim for Ningxia as the sacred place of the origin of the Chinese races’ ancient civilisation (Zhonghua minzu yuangu wenming de faxiangdi zhi yi ).

65. While the study deals with Zhuang in Guangxi and Yunnan, Katherine Palmer Kaup, ‘Regionalism versus Ethnicnationalism in the People's Republic of China’, The China Quarterly, vol. 172, 2002, pp. 863–84 makes the point that political divisions within China influence the view that minority groups have of themselves as much or perhaps more than they do for Han-Chinese. As a widely dispersed group, the Hui would fit this pattern arguably even more than the Zhuang. Comments here by necessity are restricted to Ningxia Hui and should not be regarded as representative of Hui throughout China.

66. Dru Gladney, Muslim Chinese, Chapter III.

67. ‘Northwest Muslims Celebrate Traditional Corban Festival’, 8 April 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-098 suggests that there were an average of 500 ‘converts’ per mosque in Ningxia at the time.

68. ‘Muslims in Ningxia Leave for Mecca’, People's Daily, (English online edition), 9 February 2001, http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200102/09/eng20010209_61972.html accessed 14 March 2003.

69. Ayub Khan, ‘Chinese Muslims Rediscovering Islam’, Islam for Today, n.d. http://www.islamfortoday.com/china.htm accessed 14 March 2003. ‘Young Chinese Muslims Enthusiastic about Learning Arabic’, People Daily, (English online edition), 30 March 2001 http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200103/30/eng20010330_66444.html accessed 14 March 2003.

70. Lisa Carducci, ‘Visite à une Famille Hui du Ningxia’, Beijing Information, 2002, http://www.bjinformation.com/fawen-2002/pic-2003-11/03-11-chinapeople.htm accessed 14 March 2003.

71. Alexander Berzin, ‘The Relation of the Hui Muslims with the Tibetans and Uighurs, 1996’, The Berzin Archives, November 1996, http://www.berzinarchives.com/islam/relation_hui_muslims_tibet_uighurs.html accessed 14 March 2003.

72. ‘Ding Guangen, Others Join NPC Discussion’, 14 March 1998, FBIS-CHI-98-073.

73. Qiu Qingchun & Zhang Shaopeng, n.d. ‘Touzi 2 yi heli kaifa Xixia wangling fengjing mingsheng, Ningxia minying qiye zaofang Shanghai shouhuo efeng’, Xinxiaoxi bao, no. 77 http://www.nx.cninfo.net/xbdkf/kaifajishi/index.htm

74. ‘Helan Shan donglin jiang xingcheng luyou “huangjin” zoulang’, Ningxia ribao comprehensive news net http://www.nx.xinhua.org/2003news/nxyw/03032008.htm (20 March 2003). Part of the problem so far has been an overlap of facilities and marketing of six scenic areas. The government now wants consolidation of these facilities and package marketing. For this aim a Xi Xia District Tourist Group has been established.

75. The Tongxin Mosque is now under ‘special protection’ of the AR government.

76. For a detailed list of potential tourist sites in Ningxia see, Guojia Tongjiju, ed. Zhongguo xibu tongji niangjian 2001, pp. 56–7.

77. ‘Int'l Tourism Festival to Boost Development in Ningxia’, People's Daily, 14 July 2000. http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200007/14/eng20000714_45499.html website accessed 11 March 2003.

78. Julie Jie Wen and Clement A. Tisdell, Tourism and China's Development. London: World Scientific, 2001, pp. 85, 87, 103.

79. Hu Angang, The New Strategy for Developing the West, Beijing: China Planning Publishing House, 2001. Source taken from other source without verifying.

80. ‘Closing the Digital Divide for Poverty Reduction: Ningxia Distance Learning Center Launched’ (31 October 2001) Global Learning Development Network website: http://www.gdln.org/press-china.html accessed on 11 March 2003.

81. The World Bank provided loans for 13 programmes in Ningxia between1984 and 2001 using total capital of 130 million US dollars.

82. ‘Beijing University to Help Ethnic Area Develop Education’, China Education and Research Network, 4 September 2001. http://www.edu.cn/20010904/3000221.shtml accessed 11 March 2003.

83. Other parts of the West also seem to be getting reports of educational improvement - most notably Tibet.

84. ‘Ningxia Launches Education Program’ Xinhua (09 November 2001). China Development Gateway http://211.147.20.14/chinagate/focus/west/news/i007/20011109prog.html accessed 11 March 2003.