II. New Tibet Follows a Sound Path of Development
Tibet has undergone historic changes after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951 made it possible to expel the forces of imperialism from Tibet, and the democratic reform in 1959 brought to an end the feudal theocratic serfdom that had endured, and exerted both religious and political power, for hundreds of years. In 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region was established, and the socialist system has since prevailed in Tibet. Following the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, the drive for modernization has brought extensive benefits to Tibet as much as to any other part of the country. Especially in the 21st century, Tibet has achieved even faster growth and further progress towards building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. Through more than 60 years of development, the people of Tibet have found a path of development that is both characteristically Chinese and suited to the actual prevailing conditions in Tibet. Thus, a new Tibet that is a blend of both the traditional and the modern has appeared.
- The development path of new Tibet safeguards the unity of the Chinese nation.
Tibet faced two different possible outcomes when the imperialists invaded the plateau in the modern era: unity with or separation from the Chinese nation. British colonialists invaded Tibet twice - in 1888 and 1904 - and forced the Qing court, which ruled China from 1644 to 1911, to sign a couple of unequal treaties that accorded Britain with many privileges in Tibet. When the Qing court was overthrown in 1911, the British began fostering separatist forces in Tibet, trying to engineer "Tibetan independence." No sooner had the People's Republic of China been founded in 1949 than separatists from the upper classes of Tibet were hastening to hatch plots for "Tibetan independence" with imperialist forces, attempting to separate Tibet from the motherland. Based on an assessment of Tibet's history and the prevailing conditions there, the Central People's Government of China decided to follow a principle of peaceful liberation for Tibet so as to safeguard national unity and territorial integrity. Patriots in Tibet, including the 10th Panchen Lama, also called on the central government to liberate and station Chinese People's Liberation Army troops in Tibet to ensure the unity of the country. The peaceful liberation of Tibet was finally achieved when the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (also known as the "17-Article Agreement") was signed on May 23, 1951. The 14th Dalai Lama sent a telegram to Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central People's Government, which read: "...The local government of Tibet as well as the ecclesiastical and secular people unanimously support this Agreement, and, under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Central People's Government, will actively assist the PLA troops entering Tibet to consolidate national defense, ousting imperialist influences from Tibet and safeguarding the unification of the territory and the sovereignty of the motherland."
The peaceful liberation enabled Tibet to shake off the fetters of imperialism, confounded imperialist designs for an independent Tibet, and realized the unity of the Chinese nation in these new historical circumstances. It also addressed the issue between the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama left over from history, leading to unity within Tibet. After the peaceful liberation, the Chinese government gradually revoked the privileges foreign countries had awarded themselves in Tibet. In 1954, the People's Republic of China and India signed the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet Region of China and India, abolishing the privileges India had inherited from the British invaders. In 1956, China signed with Nepal the Agreement on Maintaining Friendly Relations between the People's Republic of China and the Kingdom of Nepal and on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet Region of China and Nepal, settling the issue between the local Tibet government and Nepal left over from history.
Over more than half a century since then, the Tibetan people have shared one mind, and in the face of every challenge have stood together with the people of other ethnic groups of the Chinese nation. Together, they have established a harmonious relationship featuring equality, solidarity and interdependence. The people of Tibet have stood firmly with the central government in spite of hardships endured and challenges faced in the struggle against separatist forces in order to safeguard national unity and solidarity, and also to share with the rest of the country the fruits and achievements of development in the course of rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
In order to help Tibet develop rapidly and get rid of poverty and backwardness, the central government has fully exploited the institutional advantages of the socialist system to pool nationwide strengths to support the construction of Tibet, and a series of preferential policies have been adopted and great financial and material resources as well as manpower have been amassed to inject new impetus to its development. For the past six decades and more, the financial department of the central government has steadily increased transfer payments for Tibet. In the period from 1952 to 2013, the central government provided 544.6 billion yuan to Tibet in financial subsidies, accounting for 95 percent of Tibet's total public financial expenditure. Since 1980, five national symposiums have been called on work in Tibet, working out integrated blueprints for Tibet's development by proceeding from the perspective of the country's overall drive for modernization. Since the Third National Symposium on Work in Tibet in 1994, the central government has put into effect the policy of pairing-up support for Tibet where 60 central state organs, 18 provinces or municipalities directly under the central government, and 17 centrally managed state-owned enterprises have been paired up with and made to provide assistance to specific areas of Tibet. Over the last two decades, a total of 5,965 of China's best officials have been appointed to work in Tibet, 7,615 assistance projects have been carried out, and 26 billion yuan has been invested in Tibet and mainly directed at improving infrastructure and quality of life. All of this assistance has made an enormous contribution to Tibet's social and economic development. After the Fifth National Symposium on Work in Tibet in 2010, the central government determined that the 17 provincial and municipal governments involved in the paired-up support program should provide Tibet with 0.1 percent of their yearly fiscal revenues as aid funds, thus establishing a mechanism to ensure a steady growth in such aiding funds.
- The development path of new Tibet ensures that the people are masters of their own fate.
The transformation of the old serf-owning Tibet into a new Tibet where the people are masters of their own fate was an essential precondition of Tibet's social development and also a fundamental aspiration of the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. Within the framework of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, Tibet has embarked on a road of modern democracy, and all political rights of the people are fully respected and protected.
In Tibet there are Tibetans, Monbas, Lhobas, Naxi's, Huis, Han's and peoples of some other ethnic groups; they all enjoy the right to equally participate in the administration of state affairs. The system of people's congress, as a basic political system of China, serves as the main channel through which the people exercise their democratic rights. Now, the Tibet Autonomous Region has 21 deputies to the National People's Congress, of whom 12 are Tibetans, and even the Monba and Lhoba ethnic groups, despite their small populations, are each represented by one. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is unique to China's socialist democracy; it is an important platform for the Chinese people to exercise deliberative democracy. At present, Tibet has 29 members on the CPPCC National Committee, including 26 from the Tibetan and other ethnic minorities. Among the 34,244 deputies to the local people's congresses at all four administrative levels in Tibet, 31,901 are from the Tibetan, Monba, Lhoba, Naxi, Hui, Zhuang and other ethnic minorities, accounting for more than 93 percent. The 44-member standing committee of the tenth Tibet regional people's congress has 25 representatives from Tibetan and other ethnic minorities, who occupy eight of the 14 positions of chairpersons or vice-chairpersons. Community-level democracy is also subject to constant enhancement. More than 95 percent of Tibet's villages have established the system of villagers' representative meetings and elected villagers' self-governance organizations. All villages have made their affairs public and exercise democratic management, and more than 90 percent of them have set up billboards to guarantee the rights of the general public to be informed about, to participate in, to make decisions on, and to scrutinize local government. All of Tibet's 192 urban communities have also set up community residents' congresses and community committees, providing a solid organizational mechanism for the self-governance of local urban residents.
China's system of regional ethnic autonomy is based on the national conditions. Tibet is one of the five ethnic autonomous regions of China. According to the Constitution and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy of the People's Republic of China, the Tibet Autonomous Region enjoys extensive autonomy in legislation, language, culture and education, and flexible application of relevant state laws as well as fiscal management and official appointments. Since their establishment in 1965, the regional people's congress and its standing committee have passed more than 290 local laws and regulations or resolutions and decisions of a legislative nature, and formulated measures for the flexible application of some state laws in Tibet in order to adapt them to local conditions.
Tibet created alternative regulations in 1981 and 2004, in which the legal age of marriage for both men and women was reduced by two years relative to the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, and polyandrous and polygynous relationships that had existed before the regulations took effect would be allowed to continue if no one involved proposed dissolution. Tibet also issued the Interim Measures for Family Planning in Tibet Autonomous Region (Trial). Han Chinese officials and workers and their families are authorized to have only one child per couple; as regards Tibetan, Naxi, Hui and Zhuang officials and workers, and their family members whose hukous (residency registration) are in relevant urban enterprises, are allowed to have two children per couple at reasonable intervals; farmers and herdsmen in farming and pastoral areas are not subject to any restrictions, likewise there are no restrictions on couples from the Monba, Lhoba, Sherpa and Deng ethnic groups.
In addition to the national holidays, Tibet has also established other public holidays, mostly traditional Tibetan festivals such as the Tibetan New Year and Shoton Festival.
According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the state has the responsibility to help the ethnic autonomous areas train large numbers of officials at various levels, and specialized personnel and skilled workers of various professions and trades from among the ethnic group or groups in those areas. The Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional Ethnic Autonomy stipulates that the chairperson of an autonomous region, the prefect of an autonomous prefecture or the head of an autonomous county is to be a member of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned; other government posts in the relevant area will be assigned to members of the ethnic group exercising regional autonomy and to other ethnic minorities on a proportional basis. The Civil Servant Law of the People's Republic of China provides that, where there is any employment of civil servants in an autonomous area, applicants from ethnic minorities will be given appropriate preferential treatment. In the current contingent of local officials in Tibet, 70.95 percent are from the Tibetan and other ethnic minorities, and among county and township leaders the proportion is very similar. Since the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up, all the chairpersons of the standing committee of the regional people's congress and of the regional people's government have been elected from the Tibetan ethnic group. Tibetan and other ethnic minority candidates for the national college entrance and civil servant exams enjoy a preferential marking system.
- The development path of new Tibet guarantees the common prosperity of all ethnic groups.
With the full support of the central government and the generous assistance of other ethnic groups from the rest of the country, the people of Tibet have worked together to achieve widespread success.
There have been substantial improvements in the quality of life. In 2013, the Gross Regional Product (GRP) of Tibet reached 80.767 billion yuan; the per-capita net income of farmers and herdsmen was 6,578 yuan and the per-capita disposable income of urban dwellers was 20,023 yuan. The overwhelming majority of Tibetans have now shaken off poverty that had dogged them for centuries to enjoy a relatively comfortable life. The low-income housing projects for farmers and herdsmen that were initiated in 2006 have been completed, and a total of 460,300 low-income houses were built, providing safe modern housing to 2.3 million farmers and herdsmen. The average per-capita floor space of farmers and herdsmen was 30.51 sq m, and that of urban dwellers reached 42.81 sq m.
In 2013, the population of Tibet rose to 3.1204 million, and average life expectancy was 68.2 years. These represent a tripling and a doubling of the respective figures from the early 1950s. According to the "CCTV Economic Life Survey" jointly sponsored by the National Bureau of Statistics, China Post Group, and China Central Television (CCTV), Lhasa has topped the "happiness index" for five consecutive years.
There has been comprehensive development in Tibet's education, health and social security. The region took the lead in China to provide its residents with a 15-year free education (three-year preschool, six-year primary school, three-year junior middle school and three-year senior middle school); 99.59 percent of school-age children are enrolled at primary level; the gross enrollment rates for junior middle school and senior middle school have reached 98.75 percent and 72.23 percent, respectively. The quality of the population is also improving. Illiteracy has been wiped out among the young and the middle-aged, and the average length of time spent in education for people above the age of 15 has reached 8.1 years. A basic medical and health service system has been established. Tibet now has 6,660 medical and health institutions. Free medical services are now available to all farmers and herdsmen in the autonomous region, with the relevant annual subsidy being raised to 380 yuan per person in 2014. Tibet is the first area in China to provide free physical examinations for urban and rural residents.
The drive for modernization continues. Modern industry and infrastructure are improving rapidly. A distinctive modern industrial system has been established that is adapted to the needs and conditions in Tibet and comprises more than 20 industries, in addition to the full development of a new energy system that is based on hydraulic power features complementation of geothermal, wind and solar power as well as other new energy sources. In 2013, the total installed generating capacity reached 1.28 million kw, and 100 percent of the local population was ensured access to electric power supply. A comprehensive transportation system including road, aviation, railway, and pipeline transportation has been gradually developed and improved. In 2014, every county and township now has highway access; 62 of the region's 70 counties are accessible by asphalted roads. The rail link connecting Lhasa and Shigatse - an extension to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway - is now in service. Tibet has now five airports served by eight airlines; and 45 domestic air routes link Tibet with other parts of China. A network of optical cable, satellite and long-distance telephone lines has been established in the region, and all places above county level now have 3G coverage. Every township has broadband service and every village has telephone services. By the end of 2013, the penetration rates of telephones and Internet stood at 98.1 percent and 37.4 percent, respectively.
Tibet is becoming increasingly open to the outside world. Keeping abreast with other parts of China, Tibet has gradually evolved from being a closed type to being one that is open and market-oriented. Tibet has been fully incorporated into the national market system. While products from all over the nation and across the world flow into Tibet, the region's own characteristic products also move in large quantities to other parts of the country and further afield. In 2013, the total value of Tibet's foreign trade reached 3.319 billion U.S. dollars; and the region hosted 12.91 million tourists, including 220,000 from overseas.
- The development path of new Tibet facilitates the inheritance and spread of the positive aspects of traditional Tibetan culture.
Tibet has succeeded in preserving the spoken and written Tibetan language. The region enacted three provisions in 1987, 1988 and 2002, respectively, to provide a solid legal base for the study, use and development of the Tibetan language and script. Bilingual education, with Tibetan as the principal language, is widespread in Tibet. Primary schools in all farming and pastoral areas and some urban areas use both Tibetan and Chinese in teaching, but mostly Tibetan for the major courses. Middle schools also use both languages, and Tibetan classes in middle schools in inland areas also have Tibetan language course. In the national college entrance exams, it is permissible to answer questions using Tibetan script. Computer coding of Tibetan characters has reached national and international standards. Editing, laser phototypesetting and electronic publishing in Tibetan are extensively adopted. Tibetan is widely used in political life. Resolutions, laws and regulations adopted at people's congresses at all levels, and official documents and declarations published by people's governments at various levels and their subsidiary departments in Tibet are published in both Tibetan and Chinese. In judicial proceedings, Tibetan is used to try cases involving litigants from the Tibetan group and for the relevant legal documents. While preserving and developing the Tibetan language, the state also popularizes standard Chinese throughout the country, including Tibet, so as to promote economic and cultural exchanges between ethnic groups and regions.
The outstanding traditional Tibetan culture has been preserved and handed down. Tibet has issued the Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region on the Protection of Cultural Relics, and issued the Notice of the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Government on Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Relics, in addition to the enactment of various other relevant laws and regulations. Currently, Tibet has 4,277 cultural relic sites, including 55 key cultural heritage sites under state protection, 391 under regional protection, and 978 under city- or county-level protection, as well as three state-level historical and cultural cities (Lhasa, Shigatse and Gyangtse). The Potala Palace, the Norbulingka and Jokhang Temple are on the World Heritage List. Tibet Museum is a national A-class museum. The Tibet Archives boasts a collection of more than 3 million documents of historic importance. Tibet has 76 items listed as state-class intangible cultural heritage items, 323 as regional ones, 76 as city-level ones, and 814 as county-level ones, in addition to 68 representative trustees of such cultural items at the national level and 350 at the regional level. There are 117 Tibetan opera troupes. Tibetan opera and the Gesar epic are included in UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Modern public cultural services also extend across an ever-widening area; radio and TV coverage has reached 94.38 percent and 95.51 percent, respectively. Every administrative village or Buddhist temple in Tibet now boasts a library appropriate to its needs. In 2011, Tibet set up a special fund to support the development of cultural industries.
Citizens enjoy full freedom of religious belief. In Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, Bon, Islam, and Catholicism coexist with a number of other religions, and within Tibetan Buddhism there are different sects such as Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug. The freedom of religious belief of various ethnic groups is respected and protected by the Constitution and the laws, with all religions and sects being treated equally. This equates to true religious tolerance. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or disbelieve in, any religion, nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. Currently, Tibet has 1,787 sites for different religious activities, over 46,000 resident monks and nuns, and 358 Living Buddhas; there are four mosques and over 3,000 Muslims, and one Catholic church and 700 believers. Traditional religious activities such as learning the scriptures and debate, promotion through degrees, initiation as a monk or nun, abhisheka (empowerment ceremony), sutra chanting, and self-cultivation are held on a regular basis, while ceremonial activities are also held at important religious festivals in accordance with conventions. Ordinary believers usually have a scripture hall or a Buddha shrine at home, and such religious activities as circumambulation while reciting scriptures, Buddha worship, and inviting lamas or nuns from monasteries to hold religious rites are normally practiced.
Living Buddha reincarnation is a succession system unique to Tibetan Buddhism and is respected by the state. Through traditional religious rituals and historical conventions like drawing lots from a golden urn, the Tibet Autonomous Region searched for and identified the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, and conferred and enthroned the 11th Panchen Lama with the approval of the State Council in 1995. The State Administration for Religious Affairs issued the Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism in 2007 to further institutionalize the reincarnation process of Living Buddhas. Since democratic reform in Tibet, over 60 incarnated Living Buddhas have been confirmed through historical conventions and traditional religious rituals.
- The development path of new Tibet is sustainable.
Serving as the important ecological safety barrier in China, Tibet's role is significant not only in Asia but on a global level. In recent decades, in keeping with economic, social and natural laws, Tibet has avoided development at the expense of the natural environment. Instead it has followed a sustainable path compatible with the harmonious coexistence of economy, society, and ecological environment. Guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development, the central government lays great emphasis on environmental protection, deeming it as an important part of development. Aiming at the strategic objectives of building the ecological safety barrier as well as ecological and beautiful Tibet, the regional government strives to establish and follow a new sustainable pattern of development on the Tibet plateau.
Over the years, both central and regional governments have devised and implemented a series of plans for ecological conservation in Tibet to make overall planning for eco-environmental protection and economic construction of the region. In the National Plan for Eco-environmental Improvement and the National Program for Eco-environmental Protection, formulated by the government in 1998 and 2000 respectively, a separate plan with specific protection measures was drawn up to make the freeze-thawing zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau one of the country's eight major areas for ecological improvement. In 2009, the national government approved the Plan for Ecology Safety Barrier Protection and Improvement in Tibet (2008-2030), aiming to complete the Tibet ecology safety barrier by 2030 with an investment of RMB 15.8 billion. The Tibet Autonomous Region has also worked out and implemented a series of plans for eco-environmental protection and construction, including the Eco-environmental Improvement Plan, Plan for Water and Topsoil Conservation, Comprehensive Improvement Plan for the Environment in Farming and Pastoral Areas, and Ecological Function Zoning. Tibet has also further intensified efforts in eco-environmental protection by way of legislation, such as amending the Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region for Environmental Protection, and issuing the Methods of the Tibet Autonomous Region on Oversight and Management of Eco-environmental Protection.
Both the central and regional governments have adopted quite a number of strict measures for environmental protection. Projects have been carried out to protect natural forests, to reforest cultivated land, and to restore grassland by prohibiting grazing, as have grassland ecological environment improving programs like conservation and recovery of natural grassland, settlement of nomads, man-made grassland, and deteriorated pastureland improvement. A national fund was launched to compensate costs of public forest management. Efforts are being made in the areas of desertification control, water and soil conservation, comprehensive control of the drainage basins of small rivers, and prevention of geological disasters. Tibet's regional government is very prudent in developing industry, imposing strict constraints on industries that are heavy consumers of energy, and those which cause severe pollution or issue heavy emissions. It advocates the use of clean energy, and endeavors to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The central and regional governments have adopted strict measures to prohibit exploitation of mineral resources. In 2013, the Tibetan government issued and began implementing regulations on supervising eco-environmental protection, regulations on supervising the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources, and measures on evaluating environmental conservation, further controlling the access to mineral development licenses through stricter environmental standards. The autonomous region has brought exploration and exploitation of mineral resources under its unified management, and vetoes any project that fails to meet the environment standards.
Thanks to concerted efforts made by all parties concerned, great progress has been made in Tibet's ecological improvement. Currently, its nature reserves, which amount to 413,700 sq km, or 33.9 percent of the total land area of the region, lead the whole country. Its forest coverage rate reaches as high as 11.91 percent, and the region tops the whole country in total growing wood stock. Tibet boasts 6 million ha of wetlands, leading all the other areas of China. All the region's 125 species of wild animals and 39 wild plants under state protection are well cared for in the established nature reserves. By the end of 2012, Tibet had 85.11 million ha of natural grassland in total, of which 69.1 million ha was available for grazing. Tibet remains one of the areas with the best environmental quality in the world, with most parts of the region maintaining their original natural state.
