Xi Hammers Home Message of Control Over Tibet in Rare Visit
(My Healthty Life) -- Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for his government to tighten its ethnic-assimilation campaign during a rare visit to Tibet, throwing a spotlight on a region that’s also been a source oftension with India even as the rivals improve ties.
Xi made his second-ever visit to Tibet as president to mark the 60th anniversary of its founding as an autonomous region of China. While he didn’t speak at a ceremony Thursday in the provincial capital Lhasa, attended by some 20,000 people and televised to the nation, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi told local officials maintaining political stability, social order, ethnic solidarity and religious harmony are key for Tibet’s development.
“It is necessary to actively create a national model zone for ethnic unity and progress,” Xi was cited as saying by Xinhua on Wednesday. In reference to Mandarin, he urged the popularization of the “national common language and script,” adding “we must guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society.”
His trip represents the first time a Chinese president has attended the ceremony to mark Tibet’s founding — an occasion usually frequented by lower-level officials — signaling Xi’s desire to further integrate ethnic groups under Communist Party control.
“It is very striking that Xi himself decided to attend what is in many ways a routine event,” said Robert Barnett, a professor at SOAS University of London. “The visit seems to suggest a serious anxiety about security there.”
During Xi’s more than decade-long rule, the Chinese government has steered away from its long-held policy of championing ethnic autonomy. Instead, it’s moved toward tighter integration and centralized control of minority groups, drawing a lesson from the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Xi arrived in Lhasa on Wednesday, hours after India and China agreed to explore demarcating their disputed border that runs along Tibet’s southern edge, a key move toward resolving decades-old territorial disputes. The decision came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up a two-day visit to India — his first in three years.
The world’s two most-populous nations have clashed repeatedly over their disputed border in the past 70 years. Ties plunged sharply in 2020 after a deadly confrontation but have recently been on the mend, with efforts gaining urgency amid US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
China and India have also split in the past over choosing a successor to the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, who’s been hosted by India after fleeing the region in 1959, nine years after China took control.
While China’s government says it has the right to designate his successor, the Dalai Lama — who turned 90 last month — insists his office would be the sole authority on reincarnation.
The issue is a point of contention between China and India even as they try to repair ties, with Beijing last month lodging a complaint after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent birthday wishes to the Dalai Lama. India has said it doesn’t interfere in religious matters.
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Beijing has faced criticism for its policies in Tibet. It’s been subject to intense social, security and religious restrictions, much like its northern neighbor Xinjiang.
Xi’s visit indicates Beijing attaches high importance to the region’s development, according to Xinhua, given the president is personally leading a central government delegation to Tibet for the first time.
In a speech delivered at the ceremony in Tibet, Wang Huning, China’s No.4 official, called for ensuring border stability in the country’s fight against separatism. Cadres in the region should “strengthen innovative social governance, and form an iron wall for maintaining stability,” he said.
Xi previously made a trip to Tibet in 2021 — more than three decades after Jiang Zemin became the last Chinese leader to visit the region.
It appears Xi flew directly into Lhasa, a city at an altitude of about 3,650 meters (12,000 feet), without first stopping along the way to acclimatize as he did during his last trip in 2021.
For the Chinese leader, who turned 72 in June, it was a “health flex,” Victor Shih, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, said on X.
As he met with local officials, Xi also called for progress on delivering key infrastructure projects in the region. Chief among these is the massive 1.2 trillion yuan ($167 billion) mega-dam, which is three times the size of the Three Gorges Dam.
The dam could also become a source of tension between China and India, as the river runs through the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India and feeds into the Brahmaputra River, which then flows into Bangladesh. China has said it’s talked with countries downstream about the project.
During Wang’s visit, India reiterated its concern about the dam’s construction, which it said “will have implications for lower riparian states,” and called “for utmost transparency in this regard.”
Major ventures such as the Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project and the Sichuan-Tibet railway must be advanced with “strength, order and efficiency,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying on Wednesday.
The Chinese leader also urged Tibet to develop agriculture and clean energy, while promoting the integration of culture and tourism.
“The Chinese fear seems to be about inner Tibetan thinking — a fear that Tibetans are still disloyal in their hearts even after more than 70 years under Chinese rule,” said Barnett, who also headed Columbia University’s Modern Tibetan Studies Program until 2018 and writes extensively about the region.
“Exceptional degrees of pressure and persuasion must have been used by local officials to achieve that display of total unity,” he said. “So the signaling of Xi’s visit so far seems very mixed indeed.”
--With assistance from Colum Murphy and Sudhi Ranjan Sen.
(Updates with analyst comments starting in fifth paragraph.)
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