The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet A Historic Advance and a Great Achievement: Development and Progress in Tibet during the 60 Years since Its Peaceful Liberation

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Sixty years ago on May 23, the Central People’s Government and the former Tibet local government signed the Agreement on the Procedures for Peacefully Liberating Tibet (the Seventeen Articles), which declared that Tibet was achieving peaceful liberation. The peaceful liberation of Tibet completely wrecked the avaricious schemes that foreign imperialist forces had carried out throughout the modern period to split Tibet off from China, and achieved the complete liberation and unification of the Chinese mainland. This greatly encouraged patriotic advanced forces in Tibet and created the conditions for changing Tibet’s feudal serf system rooted on the twin pillars of politics and religion. It also created intimate links between Tibet and the interior of China, greatly stimulated the development of all undertakings in Tibet, and opened a promising path for Tibet to flourish and progress.

Sixty years have passed in the twinkling of an eye, and in that time the marvelous Tibetan plateau in China’s southwest has undergone tremendous changes, and the Tibetan people of all ethnic groups have united with people throughout the country in the great family of the motherland, struggled resolutely together to progress, and worked arm in arm to achieve real development and progress.

1. Historic changes in the social system

Before its peaceful liberation, Tibet was for a long time under a feudal serf system rooted on the twin pillars of politics and religion. Under this system, serf owners, who comprised less than 5% of the population, controlled all the production, cultural and education resources; whereas the other 95% of the population were serfs or slaves who possessed no production resources and had no personal freedom, let alone any political rights, and they were nothing more than tools with the ability to speak. The legal code of old Tibet clearly stipulated that people are divided into three levels and nine sublevels and it sets a price on the value of a person’s life based on his or her status. Nobles and high-level religious figures were worth their weight in gold, but the lowest-level serfs were worth only a length of rope. In the course of the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the central government carried out a thorough analysis of the domestic and international situations and the social situation in Tibet at the time, and set forth the policy of liberating Tibet sooner rather than later and liberating it peacefully. As the result of repeated efforts of the central government to work together with patriotic progressive forces in Tibet represented by the Tenth Panchen Erdeni, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme and Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai among others, the Tibet local government dispatched a peace negotiator to Beijing who signed the Seventeen Articles with the central government. The Seventeen Articles stipulated on the one hand that the PLA would enter Tibet and protect its borders and oust imperialist forces there, and on the other hand that the prevailing social system and the powers of the Dalai Lama would not be changed and that officials of the Tibet local government would remain in office. It also stipulated that when the Tibetan people expressed the desire to change the prevailing social system, the Tibet local government should take the initiative to carry out reform on the basis of consultations. Subsequently, the hardline forces within Tibetan feudal serf-owing upper class did not sincerely uphold and implement the Seventeen Articles, tried to maintain the feudal serf system forever without any changes and hoped that reforms would never be adopted. In the eighth year after the peaceful liberation of Tibet, they constantly fomented incidents to break the accord, and launched an all-out armed rebellion on March 3, 1959. In this situation, the central government resolutely decided to quell the rebellion. On March 28, the State Council issued an order to dissolve the Tibet local government and have the Party committee of the Tibetan Autonomous Region carry out the functions of the local government. This step was of decisive significance on the path of building democracy in Tibet. At the same time, the central government adopted the policy of carrying out reform while quelling rebellion. While quelling the rebellion, it mobilized the masses to carry out democratic reform and to thoroughly abolish the feudal serf system that had been practiced for a thousand years and create a democratic government of people of all classes. As a result millions of serfs stood up and became masters of their country and society. In addition, after several years of preparation, the Tibetan Autonomous Region was formally established, and the Tibetan people exercised their democratic rights to elect people’s congresses and people’s governments at every administrative level in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, independently exercise the rights given to them by the Constitution and laws, and manage all the internal affairs of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, constant progress has been made in developing democracy in Tibet. The system of people’s congresses, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the system of ethnic autonomous regions, and the system of primary-level self-governance have all been fully established in Tibet and are being constantly improved. Up till the present, the Tibetan Autonomous Region People’s Congress and its standing committee have enacted more than 250 local laws and regulations, whose content ranges over a wide area including political affairs, the economy, culture and education. Members of the Tibetan ethnic group and other minorities constitute 94.4% of the membership of people’s congresses at all levels in Tibet. The Tibetan delegation to the National People’s Congress includes twelve members of the Tibetan ethnic group, one member of the Monpa ethnic group and one member of the Lhoba ethnic group. Members of the Tibetan ethnic group and other ethnic groups constitute 70.42% of provincial-level leading cadres in Tibet, and they comprise more than 86% of leading cadres in Tibet’s counties (cities, municipal districts) and its 682 towns and townships. The great changes that have occurred in Tibet’s social system have infused vigor and vitality into the ancient Tibetan plateau, greatly stimulated the development of productive forces, given impetus to rapid economic development and comprehensive social progress in Tibet, and constantly raised the living standards of the members of all ethnic groups in Tibet.

2. Glorious achievements in economic development

At the time of the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, Tibet had a population of 1.14 million; the level of productive forces was extremely backward; farming and herding was the primary industry; only a small number of people were engaged in commerce and handicraft industries; the gross regional product (GRP) was only 129 million yuan, and per capita income was only 113 yuan. Because Tibet was mired in poverty and ignorance and the people were destitute, the central government gave top priority to helping Tibet develop its economy and improve the people’s lives, and gave a large amount of aid to assist the economic and social development of Tibet. When the PLA entered Tibet in the 1950s, it abided by the directives of the central government and everywhere it went it set up schools and hospitals, passed out farm tools, and issued no-interest loans. The central government sent medical teams and veterinarians and doctors that went deep into the hinterlands where they treated the sick and prevented and controlled animal epidemics. All this increased people’s understanding of the PLA and the Communist Party and increased the solidarity between the peoples of the Han and Tibetan ethnic groups. In accordance with Comrade Mao Zedong’s directive to brave all hardships in an all-out drive to build roads to help our fellow ethnic groups, more than 100,000 Tibetans and Han Chinese, soldiers and civilians, with the PLA in the lead, built the Sichuan-Tibet Highway and the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, which together extended more than 3,000 km. over countless mountains and valleys at an average elevation of 4,000 m. Due of the elevation, cold, lack of oxygen and difficult working conditions, more than 3,000 construction workers sacrificed their lives working on the project, an average of about one per kilometer. As a result, from then on, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had a “happiness road” and a “heart link road” along which a constant stream of supplies and personnel entered Tibet, closely connecting Tibet with the rest of the motherland and lifting the curtain on the modernization and development of Tibet.

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, the central government has held five working meetings on Tibet, where it a series of special policies and preferential measures were adopted to support Tibet’s economic and social development and forces throughout the country were marshaled to support Tibet’s development. According to statistics, the state provided Tibet fiscal subsidies and fixed investment totaling 310 billion yuan just in the period from 2001 to 2010. In addition, the central government mobilized relatively developed provinces and major core SOEs to provide direct assistance to sister organizations in Tibet, and to send one group after another of cadres there to do assistance work while at the same time bringing Tibetan cadres to the interior for training. At present, a comprehensive setup for supporting Tibet’s modernization involving a combination of state direct investment in Tibet construction projects, central government fiscal subsidies and support by sister organizations throughout the country has already been set up.

Total economic output jumped to a new height. Tibet has registered double-digit growth for 18 consecutive years. In 2010, Tibet’s GRP was 50.746 billion yuan, 393 times that of 1951 calculated in comparable terms and 83 times that of 1959 when democratic reforms were adopted in Tibet. The per capita GDP was 17,000 yuan, 150 times that of 1951 and 34 times that of 1959. Local general budgetary revenue was 3.61 billion yuan, and it increased at least 20% for eight consecutive years. In particular, in the last five years (the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period) GRP growth maintained a sensational pace and the GRP passed the 30 billion, 40 billion and 50 billion marks and increased at an average annual rate of 12.4%. Total fixed investment in the region for the five years was 165.6 billion yuan, 2.4 times that of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. Total consumer sales over the five years totaled 67 billion yuan, 1.3 times that of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. Local general budgetary revenue for the five years was 12.63 billion yuan, three times that of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period.

Infrastructure has been greatly improved. The rudiments of a comprehensive transport network are now in place. Asphalt roads connect 54 of Tibet’s 74 counties and six more are under construction. All of the region’s towns and villages and 80% of the administrative villages are linked by roads, and there are 58,000 km. of roads open to vehicular traffic, an increase of 50,700 km. over 1959. The Qinghai-Tibet railroad was opened to traffic in 2006, connecting Tibet to the rest of China by rail for the first time. The Lhasa-Shigatse Railroad is included in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and construction of it has already begun. Construction has been completed on five large civilian airports: the Lhasa Gonggar Airport, Qamdo Bangda Airport, Nyingchi Mainling Airport, Shigatse Peace Airport and Ngari Gunsa Airport which are serviced by 21 domestic and international airline routes. Development of a comprehensive energy system based mainly on hydropower was accelerated. Hydropower stations were built and put into operation at Shiquan River, Zhikong and Bahexueka, and the total electric power capacity of Tibet has reached 974,000 kW., with another 956,000 kW. under construction, and 82% of the population has access to electricity. The modern information network covers the whole region, and the 3G network extends to all counties. There are more than 1.15 million Internet users, and all townships have broadband Internet service and all villages have telephone service.

Further progress has been made in developing industry. Tibet has indicated that it needs to energetically develop six industries for which it has favorable conditions: mining, Tibetan medicine, ethnic handicrafts, tourism, local agricultural products, and organic foods and beverages, and create a number of name brands that reflect the characteristics of the region. At present, industries that produce unique products for which Tibet has favorable conditions are developing quickly; the overall productive forces of the farming and herding industries have increased further, and great progress has been made in mineral exploration. The tourism industry in particular has grown by leaps and bounds due to the unique natural conditions of the plateau and Tibet’s rich cultural environment. In recent years, Tibet has thrown itself wholeheartedly into publicity, sales promotion and outstanding service, and made breakthroughs in winter tourism and rural tourism. In 2010, a total of 6.851 million tourists visited Tibet and tourism income was 7.14 billion yuan, 2.8 and 2.7 times more than in 2005 respectively.

People’s standard of living has increased greatly. The per capita net income of farmers and herders has undergone double-digit growth for eight consecutive years, and reached 4,138.7 yuan in 2010, a 99.2% increase over 2005, and 118 times the figure of 35 yuan in 1959. The per capital disposable income of urban residents was 14,980 yuan, a 78.1% increase over 2005. Particularly since 2006, great progress has been made in building a new socialist countryside with the focus on enabling the people to live peaceful lives and have satisfying jobs, and a total of 17 billion yuan has been invested in this undertaking. In all of Tibet, 275,000 people live in substandard conditions, and 1.44 million farmers and herders live in safe and satisfactory housing. A total of 1.53 million people have been provided with a steady source of safe drinking water; roads have been built to 159 towns and townships and 1,659 administrative villages, and electric power has been provided to an additional 740,000 farmers and herders.

3. Comprehensive progress in social undertakings

Before its peaceful liberation, Tibet did not have a single modern school or hospital. The limited number of schools and traditional Tibetan medicine facilities were monopolized by the feudal nobility and the monasteries. Life expectancy was 35 years, and 95% of young and middle-aged people were illiterate. For the Tibetan ethnic group to progress, education had to be made the foundation. From 1950 to 2010, the state spent a total of 40.73 billion yuan to cover the costs of education, and created an education system encompassing pre-school education, compulsory education, secondary education, higher education, vocational education and special education. In the 1980s, the state eliminated miscellaneous expenses and provided free books to the children of all farmers and herders throughout Tibet who were enrolled in compulsory education, and boarding students were provided free housing and meals and exempted them from school fees. In 2009, Tibet raised the level of subsidies for this program for the third time, and now elementary students receive 1,750 yuan and secondary school students receive 1,850, and 270,000 students benefit from this program. As of 2010, Tibet has made nine-year compulsory education virtually universal, and 99.2% of elementary-school aged children attend school; and the percentages for lower secondary school, upper secondary school and university are 98.2%, 60.1% and 23.4% respectively. The illiteracy rate for young and middle-aged people has dropped to 1.2%, and the average education of Tibetans is 7.3 years.

Great progress has been made in the medical and health fields in Tibet. Tibet was the first province in the country to provide universal medical insurance coverage to urban residents, and has set up a rural medical system with free treatment as its foundation. At present there are more than 1,500 health and medical facilities of all kinds in Tibet, and every township has a hospital and every village has a clinic. There are more than 8,000 hospital beds in these facilities, and there are 2.6 hospital beds and 3.2 health professionals for every 1,000 people. Both of these figures are higher than the national average. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 43% in the 1950s to 3.1% today, and life expectancy has reached 67 years. Tibet is one of the provinces with the largest number and highest percentage of centenarians in the population.

The social security system is gradually approaching completion. For many years the registered urban unemployment rate has been held at or below 4.3%, and in 2009 alone 50 million yuan spent was on job training for 280,000 farmers and herdsmen. With the energetic support of the central government, Tibet was the first province in the country to achieve full coverage of the new kind of rural old-age insurance and urban subsistence allowances. The urban subsistence allowance was raised to 300 yuan per month, and the rural subsistence allowance was raised to 1,300 yuan per year.

4. Rich and flourishing cultural life

Tibet’s outstanding traditional culture is an important part of the Chinese nation’s traditional culture. The central government and local governments at all levels in Tibet place strong emphasis on preserving and developing Tibet’s outstanding traditional culture, and always carry out a policy of respecting, carrying forward and developing the traditional culture of ethnic minorities. Institutions have been established in Tibet for the salvaging, sorting and study of artifacts of ethnic culture. They carried out a comprehensive survey throughout Tibet of artifacts and culture and arts; formulated plans to collect and organize plays, dances, music, folk art, folk songs, proverbs and stories that circulate among the people; collected materials in the Tibetan and Chinese languages totaling more than 30 million words; and published more than 1,000 academic papers and more than 30 monographs on traditional Tibetan culture. The Biography of King Gesar and other works have been placed on the list of protected intangible cultural artifacts, and were salvaged and preserved in a timely manner. The central government pays great attention to the study, use and development of the Tibetan language. International standard script coding has been developed for the Tibetan language, and it is the first Chinese ethnic minority language to be so coded.

In old Tibet, there were no newspapers, magazines, films or television; but now there are 86 publishing houses in Tibet, and every year they publish more than a hundred books; 4 magazines, 14 of which are in Tibetan; and 23 newspapers, 10 of which are in Tibetan. There is one radio station, three radio and television stations, five television stations, and 12,976 satellite receiving stations; 90.3% of the population has radio reception and 91.4% has television reception. In recent years, great progress has been made in reforming the culture system, and a large number of cultural products that have rich local flavor and embody the spirit of the times have appeared in a constant stream. Every year at Tibetan New Year, all the Tibetan television stations present variety shows celebrating the holiday, and these programs are not only well loved by the people throughout Tibet, but are also avidly watched by Tibetans living outside the region. Television stations in areas of India and Nepal where Tibetans are concentrated also broadcast Tibetan programs. New Year’s variety programs are especially popular, and Tibetans there gather with family and friends to enjoy this cultural feast just like their compatriots in Tibet. In recent years at Tibetan New Year and Spring Festival, the Tibetan Autonomous Region has sent performing arts troupes to places in Nepal, Switzerland, Australia and other countries where Tibetans are concentrated to perform and celebrate the holidays with local Tibetans. Every year, nearly 10,000 Tibetan artists participate in these programs and are enthusiastically welcomed by their compatriots living abroad.

5. Fully protecting freedom of religious belief

Most Tibetans believe in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism has a long history in Tibet, and it has a pervasive influence on people’s material and spiritual lives. At present, there are more than 1,700 Buddhist temples and monasteries and more than 40,000 Buddhist monks in Tibet. Small minorities of Tibetans also believe in Islam or Catholicism. Under the feudal serf system rooted on the twin pillars of politics and religion of old Tibet, there were three kinds of feudal lords: nobles, government officials and monastery abbots. Monasteries possessed the most land and serfs. In 1951, there were 200,000 monks and nuns out of a population of 1.1 million. Most young and middle-aged people congregated in monasteries and did not want to engage in productive work. This was a major factor constraining Tibet’s economic and social development. There was a strict caste system within monasteries, and the status of the lowest-level monks was very low. They were unskilled laborers and had no opportunity to receive cultural or even religious education. In addition, throughout history conflicts constantly broke out between different sects of Tibetan Buddhism, and whenever one sect achieved dominance through its political connections, it suppressed the other sects. There were also conflicts within sects. In the first half of the 20th century, the Ninth Panchen Lama and Thirteenth Dalai Lama, both of whom belonged to the Gulug sect, had a falling out, and the Panchen Lama was forced into exile in the interior, where he died.

After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the policy of freedom of religious belief was adopted through the efforts of the central government. All religious sects are now equal, and the Tenth Panchen Lama was able to return to Tibet through the efforts of the central government. The local Tibetan government recognized the legitimacy of the Panchen Lama, with the result that a long-standing conflict was resolved and Tibet became more united. The Chinese Constitution stipulates that freedom of religious belief is a basic right of citizens. Under the protection of the Constitution and laws, Tibetan religious believers enjoy full freedom to participate openly in normal religious activities. Forty traditional religious festivals such as the Saga Dawa Festival are protected by state law, and every year nearly a million pilgrims go to Lhasa to light incense and pray to the Buddha. A large number of traditional Buddhist sutras such as the Zhonghua Dazangjing have been edited and published in Tibetan to satisfy the demand of monks, nuns and laymen. Every year since the 1980s, the state has designated special funds for maintaining and preserving important cultural institutions, including temples and monasteries. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2000-2005), the state spent 330 million yuan on preservation projects such as building maintenance, cleaning up the environs around temples and installing fire extinguishing equipment. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, the state spent nearly 600 million yuan to carry out 22 cultural restoration projects in Tibet at 15 key cultural preservation agencies and important temples and monasteries. At the same time, religious laws and regulations and government management of religious affairs was also strengthened; democratic management of venues where religious activities are held was instituted; publicity and education in the law was carried out; the level of non-governmental- and self-management of venues where religious activities are held was raised; and the understanding of monks and nuns concerning the country and its laws and citizens was raised.

6. Effectively protecting the ecosystem

Most of Tibet is covered by the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and it is the region of the world with the most glaciers; the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong Rivers; and an important protective screen maintaining the stability of the Chinese and East Asian weather system. Its complex topography and variable weather make Tibet a region extremely rich in biological resources and an important gene bank for biological diversity. On the basis of surveys, we know that Tibet now possesses more than 9,600 species of wild plants, 40 of which are on the national list of endangered wild plants. There are 196 species of wild animals unique to Tibet, 125 of which are national and Tibetan lists of endangered wild animals. Tibet presently possesses more than 14 million hectares of virgin forest containing more than two billion cubic meters of timber, and Tibet ranks first among China’s provinces in both categories. It also possesses 82.07 million hectares of virgin prairie, accounting for 21% of China’s virgin prairie, and 68% of Tibet’s land.

Tibet has a unique and rich ecosystem, but it is also fragile. Once it is damaged, the effects are enormous and very difficult to reverse. Carrying out development rationally, using resources wisely, and protecting the ecosystem is one of the country’s basic state policies. The Central Committee’s Fifth Working Meeting on Tibet, held in 2010, clearly stated that improving Tibet’s ecosystem is a strategic project for bringing benefits to Tibet long into the future, promoting coordination between ecological protection and economic development and coordinated improvements in the ecosystem and people’s living conditions, and achieving a virtuous cycle in the ecosystem. In recent years, Tibet has carried out planning for the ecosystem in conjunction with economic and social planning; fully implemented such laws and regulations as the Land Administration Law, Water Law and Prairie Law, as well as the Tibet Ecological Security Barrier Protection and Development Plan; carried out projects to protect natural forests and return cultivated land to forests and grazing land to pastures; and carried out projects to prevent and control desertification, prevent soil erosion, comprehensively improve small watersheds, and prevent and control geological disasters. At present, Tibet has already established 21 ecological functional protection areas, seven national forests, three geological parks, one national-level scenic area, and 47 nature protection areas of various kinds at various levels. Protected areas occupy 34.5% of Tibet’s land, and forest coverage has been increased from less that 1% in the 1950s to 11.91% today. In accordance with state requirements, construction of economic projects in Tibet is subject to the strictest environmental evaluation to effectively prevent a severe negative impact on Tibet’s ecosystem from resource exploitation and all kinds of development projects. In the course of building the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, a large number of high-tech methods and engineering measures were adopted to protect the ecosystem alongside the railroad line, and 1.4 billion yuan were spent on environmental protection, making this the most expensive item of the project.

For the last 60 years, the central government has always placed great emphasis on its Tibet work, shown concern for the Tibetan people, and adopted policies and measures suitable to realities in Tibet. Tibet has made an historic transition from darkness to light, from despotism to democracy, from backwardness to progress, from destitution to abundance, and from being closed to being open, and has achieved the miracle of compressing a thousand years of development into a few short decades. The Central Committee’s Fifth Working Meeting on Tibet clearly set forth the great target of completely becoming a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which is also a major target for the country as a whole. We have reason to believe that with the solicitude of the Central Committee and the selfless support of the people of the whole country, and through the hard work of the people of all ethnic groups living in Tibet and the constant deepening of contacts, interaction and mingling between Tibet and the interior, Tibet’s development prospects will be even brighter in the future.