Chinese language chief Xi Jinping made a uncommon go to to Tibet on Wednesday to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the consolidation of Beijing’s long-contested rule over the Himalayan territory.
Xi arrived in Tibet’s regional capital of Lhasa, the place he “acquired a heat welcome from individuals of assorted ethnic teams” who waved bouquets of flowers and danced “to joyful rhythms,” the Xinhua Information Company mentioned.
The company mentioned Xi urged the constructing of a “fashionable socialist” Tibet “that’s united, affluent, civilized, harmonious and delightful.”
Communist forces occupied Tibet in 1951. In 1965, Mao Zedong’s single-party dictatorship established the Tibet autonomous area. A long time of political repression adopted, together with the demolition of some Buddhist monasteries and the imprisonment of monks.
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Latest years have seen the large-scale migration of majority Han Chinese language to the high-altitude area, the digital closure of Tibet to journalists and foreigners, the elimination of Tibetan kids from their households to boarding faculties the place they’re taught in Mandarin, and the repression of all types of political or cultural expression exterior Communist Occasion management.
China additionally insists on the correct to nominate a reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest-ranking chief, who lately turned 90 and lives in self-imposed exile in neighboring India after fleeing Chinese language rule in 1959.
On Tuesday, exiled Tibetans protested in India towards the Chinese language international minister’s go to there.
Critics say repression in Tibet has change into extra systematic and wide-reaching for the reason that crushing of anti-government protests in 2008, whereas China claims to have diminished poverty and constructed up the area’s infrastructure.
China claims Tibet has been a part of its territory for hundreds of years, however many Tibetans say they had been primarily unbiased for many of that point below their Buddhist theocracy.
China’s contested border with India runs alongside Tibet’s southern edge, the place China has been constructing roads and different infrastructure for attainable navy use.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
