Xizang sees unprecedented growth, transformation over past decade

White paper highlights CPC guidelines for governing the autonomous region in the new era

Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region has entered a new and important stage of achieving long-term peace and stability and promoting high-quality development, said a white paper released by the Information Office of the State Council on Nov 10.

The white paper, titled CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements, highlighted that the Communist Party of China's guidelines for governing Xizang in the new era have brought about all-around progress and historic success in various undertakings in the region.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012, Xizang has experienced a period of unprecedented growth and huge transformation, bringing more tangible benefits to the people, said the white paper.

Together with the people of the whole country, Xizang has achieved moderate prosperity in all respects. The social and economic progress of Xizang epitomizes the nation's outstanding achievements in development, created on the roof of the world through the Chinese path to modernization, the document said.

Solid economic development

The economy of Xizang has witnessed solid and steady growth. Its GDP reached 213.26 billion yuan ($29.7 billion) in 2022,2.28 times of that in 2012 calculated at constant prices. The increase represented an average annual growth rate of 8.6 percent, which ranked among the highest in China, according to the white paper.

The document stated that high-quality development has been realized in agricultural industries that leverage local strengths. Developing the highland barley industry, high-quality animal husbandry, and protected agriculture has been treated as priorities. In 2022, the total output value of farm and livestock products processing reached 6 billion yuan.

Progress has been made in industrial development. The industrial structure is being rationalized and the capacity for endogenous development has been significantly increased, the white paper said.

The secondary industry has achieved strong growth, and a modern industrial system with local characteristics has been established. From 2012 to 2022, the added value of industry increased by 1.77 times.

The consumer market has become more buoyant. The retail sales of consumer goods increased by 1.3 times from 31.84 billion yuan in 2012 to 72.65 billion yuan in 2022.E-commerce services are available at city, county, township and village levels. In 2022, online retail sales reached 9.14 billion yuan.

Rising income

The white paper said that the autonomous region has seen a rapid rise in the per capita disposable income of residents. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents as a whole rose to 26,675 yuan in 2022 from 8,568 yuan in 2012, representing the country's highest growth rate for eight consecutive years since 2015.

The income ratio between urban and rural residents dropped from 3.22 in 2012 to 2.67 in 2022, narrowing the income gap, the white paper said.

In particular, the per capita income of those lifted out of poverty in Xizang reached 13,800 yuan in 2022, growing faster than the region's per capita disposal income of rural residents.

Those people lifted out of poverty in Xizang have reliable access to food, clothing, housing, education and medical care, better living and working conditions, more convenient infrastructure and basic public services, and a proper social security system.

By the end of 2019, through the basic strategy of targeted poverty alleviation, the autonomous region had lifted 628,000 registered poor residents and 74 counties out of poverty. This represented a victory in the battle against extreme poverty that had plagued Xizang for thousands of years, the white paper said.

Progress in infrastructure

There has been considerable progress in transport infrastructure. Based on highways and supplemented by railways, aviation and pipelines, a comprehensive transport system has been developed and steadily improved, according to the white paper.

By early 2022, the total road length exceeded 121,400 kilometers, including 1,105 km of high-grade highways. A road network covering the whole of Xizang has been formed, with 20 national highways as the foundation, supported by 36 provincial highways together with many border roads and rural roads.

The total operating length of the railway network in Xizang was extended from 701 km in 2012 to 1,359 km in 2022. The Fuxing high-speed train series is now operating in Xizang, reaching the regional capital of Lhasa and several other cities.

In the civil aviation sector, the white paper said Xizang has 154 international and domestic routes connecting 70 cities. In 2022, passenger throughput handled by Xizang's airports reached 3.35 million.

Digital infrastructure has made remarkable progress. The 5G networks now cover all counties and major townships in the autonomous region. A total of 8,099 5G base stations and nearly 312,600 km of fiber-optic cables have been built in Xizang. Optical fiber broadband, 4G, radio and TV signals cover almost all administrative villages in the region. Modern cloud and network integration has enabled local people to connect with the world online, the white paper said.

Religious freedom

The document noted that the Xizang autonomous region fully guarantees the freedom of religious belief and religious activities are carried out in an orderly manner.

The region today hosts more than 1,700 sites for Tibetan Buddhism activities with approximately 46,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, four mosques with about 12,000 native Muslims, and one Catholic church with over 700 believers.

More than 1,700 religious and folk activities, including Shoton Festival, Butter Lamp Festival, Saga Dawa Festival and the walks around the holy lakes and mountains, help to preserve the solemn traditional rituals and demonstrate new vitality with modern cultural elements, the white paper said.

In Xizang, historical and cultural heritage is under effective protection. Xizang now boasts three State-level historical and cultural cities, five such towns and four such villages. Xizang has 2,373 cultural relics protection units under the protection of governments at different levels, 70 of which are key units under State protection.

Xizang has 106 intangible cultural heritage items on the national representative list, and 460 items on the regional list. Three items — the epic of Gesar, Tibetan Opera, and the Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa of Xizanghave been registered on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The white paper said that the central government and the local government of Xizang had earmarked more than 325 million yuan between 2012 and 2022 for protecting intangible cultural heritage items.

The cultural industry of Xizang is prosperous and dynamic. By the end of 2022, more than 8,000 cultural enterprises had registered in Xizang, employing more than 70,000 people, and the added value of cultural and related industries reached 6.33 billion yuan. During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), 91 key cultural projects were implemented, with a total investment of nearly 50 billion yuan, the white paper said.

Ecological civilization

In its efforts to become a national or even an international role model in advancing ecological civilization, Xizang continues to prioritize environmental protection, follows a holistic approach to coordinating conservation and development, and pursues green and sustainable development, according to the document.

An environmental conservation and compensation mechanism has been put in place in the autonomous region that covers forests, wetlands, grasslands and water ecosystems. Xizang boasts 47 nature reserves of different types at all levels, which cover a total area of 412,200 square kilometers.

Since 2016, the proportion of days with excellent or good air quality in Xizang has surpassed 99 percent each year. The air quality in main towns and cities has, on the whole, remained excellent or good. In 2022, Lhasa ranked first among the 168 key cities in China in terms of air quality, and Nyingchi and Chamdo both enjoyed excellent air quality all year round, said the white paper.

Educational undertakings

Educational undertakings have achieved high-quality development in Xizang. A modern education system encompassing preschools, primary and secondary schools, vocational and technical schools, institutions of higher learning, and continuing and special education institutions is in place. At present, the region has 3,409 schools of various types and at various levels, hosting more than 944,000 students, according to the white paper.

It said Xizang has taken the lead in the country in establishing a 15-year publicly funded education system from kindergarten all the way up to senior middle school.

Fresh progress has been made in strengthening the political development in Xizang, ensuring the rights of all people of all ethnic groups to be masters of the region and the country.

In Xizang, the strengths of the system of people's congresses have been given full play. A total of 89.2 percent of the 42,153 deputies to people's congresses at four levels in Xizang are from the Tibetan or other ethnic minorities

"Together with the rest of the country, people in Xizang have witnessed the tremendous transformation of the Chinese nation from standing up and becoming prosperous to growing in strength, and are now embarking on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects," the document said.

The seventh National Meeting on Xizang held in 2020 outlined the CPC guidelines for governing Xizang in the new era. The guidelines, grounded on the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the actual situation of Xizang, demonstrate a keen understanding of work related to Xizang.

The white paper hailed the guidelines as the encapsulation of "the CPC's past success in stabilizing Xizang and its plans for future development".

These guidelines provide answers to a series of questions on the future direction and strategy in governing Xizang and are to be followed in all undertakings related to the region, the document noted.

Xinhua contributed to this story.