Contents
Foreword
I. The Rapid Social Development in
Tibet
II. Tibet's Modernization Achievements
III. The Historical Inevitability of Tibet's
Modernization
Foreword
Modernization has been an important issue
confronting countries and regions worldwide in modern times.
Since the invasion of the Western powers in the mid-19th
century, it has been the most important task of the people
of all ethnic groups in China, the Tibetan people included,
to get rid of poverty and backwardness, shake off the lot of
being trampled upon, and build up an independent, united,
strong, democratic and civilized modern country. Since the
founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and
especially since the introduction of reform and opening to
the outside world, the modernization drive in China has been
burgeoning with each passing day, and achieved successes
attracting worldwide attention. China is taking vigorous
steps to open even wider and become more prosperous. China's
Tibet, with its peaceful liberation in 1951 as the starting
point, has carried out regional ethnic autonomy and made a
historical leap in its social system following the
Democratic Reform in 1959 and the elimination of the feudal
serf system. Through carrying out socialist construction and
the reform and opening-up, Tibet has made rapid progress in
its modernization drive and got onto the track of
development in step with the other parts of the country,
revealing a bright future for its development.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the
peaceful liberation of Tibet. Looking back on the course of
modernization since its peaceful liberation, publicizing the
achievements in modernization made by the people of all
ethnic groups in Tibet through their hard work and with the
support of the Central Government and the whole nation, and
revealing the law of development of Tibet's
modernization-these will contribute not only to accelerating
the healthy development of Tibet's modernization but also to
clearing up various misunderstandings on the "Tibet
issue" in the international community and promoting
overall understanding of the past and present situations in
Tibet.
I. The Rapid Social
Development in Tibet
Modernization has been the fundamental question in
the social development of Tibet in modern times. The feudal
serfdom under theocracy, which had lasted for several
hundred years in Tibet, became an extremely decadent social
system that contradicted the progressive trend in the modern
world, for it stifled the development of the social
productive forces of Tibet, seriously hindered social
progress, relegated Tibet to the state of extreme poverty,
backwardness, isolation and decline, to the point verging on
total collapse.
-- Backward social
system and harsh economic exploitation.
The
society of old Tibet under feudal serfdom was even more dark
and backward than in Europe in the Middle Ages. The three
major estate-holders -- officials, nobles and upper-ranking
monks in monasteries -- accounted for less than five percent
of Tibet's total population but owned all the farmland,
pastures, forests, mountains and rivers, and the majority of
the livestock. The serfs and slaves, accounting for more
than 95 percent of the population, owned no land or other
means of production. They had no personal freedom, had to
depend totally on the manors of estate-holders for
livelihood or act as their family slaves from generation to
generation. They were subjected to the three-fold
exploitation of corvee labor, taxes and high-interest loans
and their lives were no more than struggles for existence.
According to incomplete statistics, there were over 200
kinds of taxes levied by the Kasha (the former local
government of Tibet) alone. Slaves had to contribute more
than 50 percent or even 70 to 80 percent of their labor free
to the Kasha and estate-holders, and over 60 percent of the
farmers and herdsmen were burdened with similar
high-interest loans.
--Rigid hierarchy
and savage political oppression.
The
"13-Article Code" and "16-Article Code"
of old Tibet divided the people into three classes and nine
ranks, enshrining social and political inequality between
the different ranks in law. These codes explicitly stated
that the life of a person of the highest rank of the upper
class was literally worth his weight in gold, while that of
a person of the lowest rank of the lower class was worth
only the price of a straw rope. Serfs could be sold,
transferred, given away, mortgaged or exchanged by their
owners, who had the power over their births, deaths and
marriages. Male or female serfs belonging to different
owners had to pay a "redemption fee" if they
wished to marry, and their children were doomed to be serfs
for life. Serf-owners could punish their serfs at will. The
punishments included flogging, cutting off their hands or
feet, gouging out their eyes, chopping off their ears or
tongues, pulling out their tendons, drowning them and
throwing them down from cliffs.
--
Theocracy and the fetters of religion.
Religion and monasteries "commanded the
highest respect" in old Tibet with its theocratic
socio-political structure. As the sole ideology and an
independent politico-economic entity, they enjoyed immense
influence and numerous political and economic privileges and
had control over people's spiritual life. The upper-class
monks and priests were Tibet's principal political rulers
and also the biggest serf-owners. The Dalai Lama, as one of
the heads of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism and
concurrently the leader of the local government of Tibet,
had all the political and religious powers in his hands. The
former local government of Tibet practiced a dual clerical
and secular officials system, in which the monk officials
were senior to the lay officials. According to the 1959
statistics, of the 3.3 million kai (unit of measurement for
area used by the Tibetan people, 1 kai=1/15 hectare) of
cultivated land in Tibet, 1.2144 million kai were owned by
monasteries and upper-class monks, accounting for 36.8
percent of the total cultivated land, while aristocrats and
clerical and secular officials owned 24 percent and 38.9
percent, respectively.
The Drepung Monastery
owned 185 manors, 20,000 serfs, 300 pastures and 16,000
herdsmen. According to a survey conducted in the 1950s,
Tibet had more than 2,700 temples and monasteries and
120,000 monks, or 12 percent of the total population in
Tibet, and about one-fourth of the male population were
monks. In 1952, Lhasa had an urban population of 37,000, of
whom 16,000 were monks. The widespread temples, numerous
monks and frequent religious activities consumed a huge
amount of manpower and the greater part of material wealth
in Tibet, greatly hindering the development of the
productive forces there. According to the American
Tibetologist Melvyn C. Goldstein, religion and the
monasteries were "extremely conservative" and
"played a major role in thwarting progress" in
Tibet; "This commitment...to the universality of
religion as the core metaphor of Tibetan national identity
will be seen...to be a major factor underlying Tibet's
inability to adapt to changing circumstances."
-- Low level of development and a
precarious life.
Cruel oppression and
exploitation by the feudal serf-owners, and especially the
endless consumption of human and material resources by
religion and monasteries under the theocratic system and
their spiritual enslavement of the people, had gravely
damped the laborers' enthusiasm for production, stifled the
vitality of the Tibetan society and reduced Tibet to a
protracted state of
stagnancy. Even in the
middle of the 20th century, Tibet was still extremely
isolated and backward, almost without a trace of modern
industry, commerce, science and technology, education,
culture and health care; primitive farming methods were
still being used; and herdsmen had to travel from place to
place grazing their livestock. There were few strains and
breeds of grains and animals, and some of them had even
degenerated. Farm tools were primitive, grain yield was only
4 to 10 times the seeds sown, and the level of both the
productive forces and social development was very low.
Deaths from hunger and cold, poverty and diseases were
commonplace among the serfs, and the streets in Lhasa,
Xigaze, Qamdo and Nagqu were crowded with beggars of both
sexes, young and old.
Imperialist invasion
brought more disasters for the Tibetan people, and deepened
the social contradictions in Tibet, making it go from bad to
worse. From the middle of the 19th century, China became a
semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and Tibet, just like
most other parts of the country, was invaded by the Western
powers. In their invasions of Tibet British imperialists
made no scruple about burning, killing and looting, secured
many privileges through a number of unequal treaties, and
carried out colonialist control and exploitation by wantonly
plundering Tibet's resources and dumping their goods on the
Tibetan people. At the same time, they fostered their
trusted followers from among the ruling class and groomed
their agents, in an attempt to divide Tibet from China.
Weighed down by the internal and external double oppression
and exploitation, the masses of the serfs fared worse and
worse, driving them constantly to present petitions to the
government, flee from the land, refuse to pay rent or offer
corvee service and even raise armed revolts. Danger lurked
on every side in Tibet and "the theocratic system is
declining like a lamp consuming its last drop of oil."2
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, once a Kaloon (council minister) of
the former local government of Tibet, pointed out in the
1940s several times that if Tibet "goes on like this,
the serfs will all die in the near future, and the nobles
will not be able to live either. The whole Tibet will be
destroyed. "3 So there was a historically imperative
need for the progress of Tibetan society and the happiness
of the Tibetan people to expel the imperialists and shake
off the yoke of feudal serfdom.
The founding
of the People's Republic of China in 1949 brought hope for
the deeply distressed Tibetan people. In conforming to the
law of historical development and the interests of the
Tibetan people, the Central People's Government worked
actively to bring about Tibet's peaceful liberation. After
that, important policies and measures were adopted for
Tibet's Democratic Reform, regional autonomy, large-scale
modernization and reform and opening-up. All this has
contributed to changing the lot of Tibet and propelling
Tibetan society forward in seven-league boots.
-- The peaceful liberation opened the
way for Tibet to march toward modernization.
On May 23, 1951 the "Agreement on
Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet"
(hereinafter referred to as the "17-Article
Agreement") was signed by the Central People's
Government and the local government of Tibet, marking the
realization of the peaceful liberation of Tibet and opening
a new page for the development of the region. The peaceful
liberation of Tibet, which was a part of China's national
democratic revolution, enabled Tibet to shake off the
penetration of imperialist forces and the political and
economic shackles imposed by them, ended the discrimination
and oppression against the Tibetan ethnic group in old
China, safeguarded the national sovereignty, unification and
territorial integrity of China, realized the unity of all
ethnic groups in China and the internal unity of Tibet, and
created the essential prerequisites for Tibet to join the
other parts of the country in the drive for common progress
and development. After the peaceful liberation, the People's
Liberation Army and people from other parts of China working
in Tibet persisted in carrying out the 17-Article Agreement
and the policies of the Central Government, actively helped
the Tibetan people build the Xikang-Tibet and Qinghai-Tibet
highways, the Damxung Airport, water conservancy projects,
modern factories, banks, trading companies, post offices,
farms and schools. They adopted a series of measures to help
the farmers and herdsmen expand production, started social
relief and disaster relief programs, and provided free
medical service for the prevention and treatment of epidemic
and other diseases. All this has promoted the economic,
social and cultural development of Tibet, created a new
social atmosphere of modern civilization and progress,
produced a far-reaching influence among people of all walks
of life in Tibet, ended the long-term isolation and
stagnation of the Tibetan society, paved the way for Tibet's
march toward a modern society, and opened up wide prospects
for Tibet's further development.
-- The
Democratic Reform cleared the way for the modernization of
Tibet.
In 1951, when Tibet was liberated
peacefully, in consideration of the special history and
reality of Tibet the "17-Article Agreement"
affirmed the necessity of reforming the social system of
Tibet and, at the same time, adopted a prudent attitude
toward the reform. It stipulated that "the local
government of Tibet shall carry out reform voluntarily, and,
when the people demand a reform, shall settle it through
consultation with the Tibetan leaders." However, some
people in the Tibetan ruling group were totally opposed to
reform and raised a hue and cry about their determination
never to carry it out, in order to perpetuate the feudal
serf system. Faced with the Tibetan people's ever-stronger
demand for a democratic reform, instead of following the
popular will they ganged up with overseas anti-China forces
and raised an armed rebellion on March 10, 1959, in an
attempt to split Tibet from the motherland and seek
"independence" for Tibet. In order to safeguard
the unity of the nation and the basic interests of the
Tibetan people, the Central People's Government took
decisive measures to suppress the rebellion together with
the Tibetan people, and carried out the Democratic Reform of
the Tibetan social system.
The Democratic
Reform abolished the feudal serf-owners' right to own land
and the serfs and slaves' personal bondage to the feudal
serf-owners, repealed the old Tibetan laws and barbarous
punishments, and annulled the theocratic system and the
feudal privileges of the clergy. The reform liberated
Tibet's million serfs and slaves politically, economically
and spiritually, making them masters of the land and other
means of production, giving them personal and religious
freedom, and realizing their human rights. The reform
greatly liberated the social productive forces in Tibet, and
opened up the road toward modernization. According to
statistics, the former serfs and slaves got over 2.8 million
kai of land in the Democratic Reform and, in 1960, when the
Democratic Reform was basically completed, the total grain
yield for the whole of Tibet was 12.6 percent higher than in
1959 and 17.7 percent higher than in 1958, before the
Democratic Reform. Moreover, the total amount of livestock
was 9.9 percent more than in 1959.
--
The implementation of regional ethnic autonomy provided a
firm institutional guarantee for the modernization of Tibet.
After the Democratic Reform, the Tibetan
people, like people of all other ethnic groups throughout
China, enjoyed all the political rights provided by the
Constitution and law. In 1961, a general election was held
all over Tibet. For the first time, the former serfs and
slaves were able to enjoy democratic rights as their own
masters, and actively participated in the election of power
organs and governments at all levels in the region. Many
emancipated serfs and slaves took up leading posts at
various levels in the region. In September 1965, the First
People's Congress of Tibet was successfully convened, at
which the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the
Regional People's Government was officially proclaimed. The
founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the
implementation of regional ethnic autonomy institutionally
ensured the realization of the policy of equality, unity,
mutual help and common prosperity among all ethnic groups in
the region, and guaranteed the Tibetan people's right to
equal participation in the administration of state affairs
as well as the right to independent administration of local
and ethnic affairs. In this way, an institutional guarantee
was provided for Tibet to develop along with the other parts
of China, with special support and assistance by the state
and according to its local characteristics.
-- The policy of reform and opening-up
gave a powerful impetus to the modernization of
Tibet.
The 1980s witnessed a great upsurge of
the reform, opening-up and modernization drive in Tibet, as
in the other parts of China. To promote the development of
Tibet, the Central Government formulated a series of special
favorable policies, such as "long-term right to use and
independently operate land by individual households"
and "long-term policy of individual households'
ownership, raising and management of livestock." These
policies promoted the reform of the economic system and
opening-up in Tibet. Since 1984, 43 projects have been
launched in Tibet with state investment and aid from nine
provinces and municipalities. The implementation of the
policy of reform and opening-up and the state aid have
strengthened and invigorated Tibetan industry, agriculture,
animal husbandry and the tertiary industry with trade,
catering and tourism as its mainstays, raised the overall
level of industries and the level of commercialization of
economic activities in Tibet, and helped Tibet take another
step forward in its economic and social development.
-- The modernization drive in Tibet has
entered the new stage of rapid development with the
strategic decision of the Central Government to accord
special attention to Tibet and get all the other parts of
China to aid Tibet.
In 1994, the Central
Government held the Third Forum on Work in Tibet, and set
the guiding principles for work in the region in the new era
as follows: Focusing efforts on economic construction,
firmly grasping the two major tasks of developing the
economy and stabilizing the situation, securing the
high-speed development of the economy, overall social
progress and lasting political stability in Tibet, and
ensuring continuous improvement of the Tibetan people's
living standards. At the forum, the Central Government also
adopted the important decision to devote special attention
to Tibet and get all the other parts of China to aid Tibet,
and formulated a sequence of special favorable policies and
measures for speeding up the development of Tibet. The forum
formed a mechanism for all-round aid to the modernization of
Tibet, by which the state would directly invest in
construction projects in the region, the Central Government
provide financial subsidies, and the other parts of the
country provide counterpart aid. Since 1994, the Central
Government has directly invested a total of 4.86 billion
yuan in 62 projects; 15 provinces and municipalities and the
various ministries and commissions under the State Council
have also given aid gratis for the construction of 716
projects, contributing a total of 3.16 billion yuan; and
over 1,900 cadres have been sent from all over the country
to assist in Tibet's construction. As a result, the
production and living conditions in Tibet have been greatly
improved and its social and economic developments revved up.
In the meantime, Tibet has promoted all-round reform in its
economic and technological systems, adjusted its economic
structure and mechanism of enterprise operation and
management, set up a complete social security system,
enlarged its scope of opening-up, and actively encouraged
and attracted funds from both home and abroad for its
economic construction. In this way, the economy with diverse
forms of ownership has developed rapidly, and Tibet's inner
vitality for growth has been strengthened. In June 2001, the
Central Government held the Fourth Forum on Work in Tibet,
at which it drew up an ambitious blueprint for Tibet's
overall modernization in the new century, and decided to
adopt more effective policies and measures to further
strengthen the support for the modernization of Tibet.
With attention from the Central Government,
aid from the other parts of the country and the efforts of
people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, the development of the
region's economy has been speeded up, the people's living
standards have been greatly improved, and the modernization
drive is vibrant with life as never before. According to
statistics, from 1994 to 2000, the gross domestic product
(GDP) in Tibet increased by 130 percent, or a yearly
increase of 12.4 percent, changing the situation in which
Tibet had lagged behind the other parts of China in the GDP
growth rate for a long time in the past. Urban residents'
disposable income per capita and the farmers and herdsmen's
income per capita increased by 62.9 percent and 93.6
percent, respectively; and the impoverished population
decreased from 480,000 in the early 1990s to just over
70,000.
To sum up, the development history of
Tibet in the past five decades since its peaceful liberation
has been one of proceeding from darkness to brightness, from
backwardness to progress, from poverty to prosperity and
from isolation to openness, and of the region marching
toward modernization as a part of the big family of
China.
II. Tibet's
Modernization Achievements
In the past 50 years, thanks to the leadership of
the Central Government, the aid of the whole nation and the
unremitting efforts of the people of all ethnic groups in
the region, Tibet has kept marching forward along the road
to modernization and made significant achievements that have
attracted worldwide attention.
-- The
economy has progressed significantly.
During
the past 50 years, Tibet has witnessed tremendous changes in
its economic system and economic structure and significant
progress in its aggregate economic volume. Having thoroughly
eliminated the former closed, natural economy based on the
manorial system, Tibet is fast on its way toward a modern
market economy. In 2000, the region's GDP reached 11.746
billion yuan, twice as much as in 1995, four times as much
as in 1990, and over 30 times as much as in the pre-peaceful
liberation period. The economic structure is becoming more
and more rational. The primary industry accounted for 30.9
percent in the GDP, as against 99 percent 50 years ago, and
the proportions of the secondary and tertiary industries
rose to 23.2 percent and 45.9 percent, respectively.
Modern industry, having grown from nothing,
has gradually become an important pillar of the rapid
economic development in Tibet. So far, over 20 branches of
the industry have been set up, including energy, light
industry, textiles, machine building, lumbering, mining,
building materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, printing and
foodstuff processing. This modern industrial system with
Tibetan characteristics has produced some nationally famous
brand names, such as Lhasa Beer, Qizheng Tibetan Medicine
and Zhufeng Motorcycles. By 2000, Tibet had 482 enterprises
at and above the township level and the added value of its
secondary industry reached 2.721 billion yuan.
Basic industries, such as energy and
transportation, have thrived. Power industry has developed
rapidly, and a new energy system has been formed, with
hydropower as the mainstay backed up by supplementary energy
sources such as geothermal power, wind energy and solar
energy. By 2000, there were 401 power plants in Tibet, with
a total installed capacity of 356,200 kw and an annual
energy output of 661 million kwh -- a world of difference
from before the peaceful liberation, when there was only one
125-kw power plant, which worked irregularly and supplied
electricity only to a handful of aristocrats. Putting an end
to the history of Tibet having not a single highway, a
three-dimensional transportation system is now in place,
with highway transportation as the major part, and air and
pipeline transportation developing in coordination. A
highway network now extends in all directions with Lhasa as
the center, including such trunk roads as the Qinghai-Tibet,
Sichuan-Tibet, Xinjiang-Tibet, Yunnan-Tibet and China-Nepal
highways and 15 main highways and 375 branch highways. These
roads total 22,500 km, and reach every county and over 80
percent of the townships in the region. The two civil
airports in Tibet, Gonggar Airport in Lhasa and Bamda
Airport in Qamdo, operate domestic and international routes
from Lhasa to Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Xining,
Shanghai, Deqen and Kunming in Yunnan Province, Hong Kong,
and Kathmandu of Nepal. Meanwhile, a 1,080-km petroleum
pipeline has been built from Golmud in Qinghai Province to
Lhasa, the highest-altitude pipeline in the world. It
carries over 80 percent of petroleum transported in the
region. In June 2001, work started on the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway, and the days when the region was inaccessible by
rail will be gone for good in the foreseeable future.
The tertiary industry has become the largest
industrial sector in Tibet. Such newly emerging industries
as modern commerce, tourism, postal services, catering,
entertainment and information technology, unknown in old
Tibet, have grown by leaps and bounds. Telecommunications
have developed particularly speedily, and an advanced modern
telecommunications network covering the whole of Tibet has
taken shape, with Lhasa as the center, and including cable
and satellite transmission together with program-controlled
switching systems, digital and mobile communications. In
2000, Tibet Telecom business totaled 384 million yuan-worth
and its income was 123 million yuan, 179 times and 1,086
times the 1978 figures, respectively, and on average
increasing by 26.6 percent and 24.3 percent respectively
each year over the past 22 years. By the end of 2000, the
total installed capacity of fixed telephones reached
170,200, and 111,100 telephones were installed. The total
installed capacity of mobile telephones has reached 123,000,
with 72,300 mobile telephone users. There are also nine
Internet websites and 4,513 users. By 2000, the added value
of the tertiary industry had reached 5.393 billion yuan, the
highest among all the constituents of the region's GDP.
The mode of production in agriculture and
animal husbandry has changed radically, and the productive
forces and production returns have risen by big margins.
Since the peaceful liberation, the state has invested
heavily in water conservancy works, and put great efforts
into a number of capital construction projects for
agriculture and animal husbandry, especially in the
comprehensive development of the middle reaches of the
Yarlungzangbo, Lhasa and Nyangqu rivers. These endeavors
have greatly improved the agricultural and animal husbandry
production conditions in Tibet, and are changing the Tibetan
peasants and herdsmen's traditional lifestyles of living at
the mercy of the elements. A series of agricultural and
stockbreeding technologies have been spread widely,
including scientific fertilization, improvement of breeds,
pest control and stockraising. The mechanization of
agriculture and production efficiency have both improved by
a large margin, and farming and animal husbandry are
advancing along the line of modernization. By 2000, the
added value of the primary industry in Tibet had reached
3.632 billion yuan, the total grain yield had reached
962,200 tons, the total amount of livestock had come to
22.66 million head, self-sufficiency in grains and edible
oils had been basically realized, and the distribution of
meat and milk per capita had risen above the national
average.
-- The level of urbanization
has constantly improved.
With its natural
economy old Tibet lacked the dynamics of urban development
and had only a few small cities and towns. Lhasa, the most
populous urban center, had a population of just over 30,000.
Other places with comparatively large populations were big
villages rather than cities, each having only a few thousand
residents. Even Lhasa lacked a sound urban operating
mechanism of any sort and had scarcely any of the amenities
of a proper city. At present, the urban scale of Tibet is
expanding constantly together with industrial growth. By
2000, there were two organic cities in Tibet, 72 counties
and districts and 112 organic towns. Moreover, the urban
population totaled 491,100, and the total urban area was 147
sq m. The comprehensive functions of the cities and towns
have improved steadily, and complete systems have taken
shape in various fields, such as roads, water supply, public
security and community services, basically satisfying the
needs of the lives of the urban residents and the economic
development of the cities. Tibet is now marching toward
modernization in urban appearance and environmental
protection. Its urban environmental index now ranks first in
the country with the per capita area of its urban public
lawns reaching 10.27 sq m and a greenbelt coverage of 24.4
percent. Urban development groups radiating from Lhasa have
come into existence in Tibet, while efforts are being made
to form an economic pattern centered on cities and towns to
promote economic development in neighboring areas and
stimulate mutual development through the integration of
urban and rural areas.
-- Remarkable
achievements have been made in opening up.
The
policy of reform and opening-up has promoted the
unprecedented development of Tibet's commerce, foreign trade
and tourism, and strengthened its interrelations and
cooperation with the inland areas and the rest of the world.
The regional market system has taken initial shape, and is
gradually being integrated into the market system of the
whole country and even that of the world. A great number of
farmers and herdsmen have become businessmen, throwing
themselves into the mainstream of the market economy.
Commodities from other parts of the country and the world
are flowing into Tibet in a continuous stream to enrich both
the urban and rural markets and the lives of the local
people. A great quantity of Tibetan famous-brand products,
and special local products and handicrafts have entered the
domestic and international markets. The flourishing of
commerce and trade has given a powerful impetus to the
development of the farm and stockbreeding products
processing industry and, as a result, agriculture and animal
husbandry are going market-oriented. The state has
formulated a series of preferential policies to encourage
domestic and foreign enterprises to invest in enterprises in
Tibet, and expand both domestic and international economic
exchanges and cooperation. Tibet has attained the
contractual value of US$ 125 million in overseas investment
over the past five years. By 2000, its total imports and
exports had reached US$ 130 million-worth, of which the
total export value came to US$ 113 million.
The "roof of the world" has become
one of China's most popular tourist destinations, attracting
numerous tourists from both home and abroad with its unique
natural views and places of cultural interest. In 2000,
Tibet received a total of 598,300 tourists from both home
and abroad, of whom 148,900 were overseas tourists, earning
a direct income of 780 million yuan, and an indirect income
of 2.98 billion yuan, accounting for 6.6 percent and 25.38
percent of the region's GDP, respectively.
-- Environmental and economic
development has progressed in coordination.
Large-scale development and construction will
be certain to bring enormous pressure to bear on the fragile
ecological environment of Tibet. Since the initiation of the
policy of reform and opening-up, the Central Government and
the local government of Tibet have consistently adhered to
the strategy of sustainable development, simultaneously
planning and implementing environmental protection and
economic construction as an integral whole, to guarantee
that the demonstration, design, construction and operation
of engineering projects would give full consideration to
eco-environmental protection to promote coordinated
environmental and economic development. The
"Regulations on Environmental Protection" and the
"Regulations on the Administration of Geological and
Mineral Resources" have been formulated and implemented
in Tibet, to form a complete system together with such state
laws as the "Agrarian Management Law," "Water
Law," "Law on Water and Soil Conservation,"
"Grassland Law" and "Law on the Protection of
Wildlife." Now, with the introduction of an effective
supervision and management system for environmental
protection and pollution control, most of the forests,
rivers, lakes, pastures, wetlands, glaciers, snow mountains
and wild animals and plants in the region are well
protected, and the water, air and environmental quality is
excellent. Eighteen nature reserves at the national and
provincial levels have been established, including those in
Changtang, Mount Qomolangma and the Yarlungzangbo Grand
Canyon, whose combined area accounts for half of the total
area of China's nature reserves, playing an important role
in the protection and improvement of the fragile plateau
eco-environment. Over the past few years, Tibet has invested
over 50 million yuan in the control of waste water and gas
at enterprises and institutions such as the Lhasa Brewery,
Yangbajain Power Plant, Lhasa Leather Plant, People's
Hospital of the Autonomous Region and Lhasa Cement Plant,
effectively improving the urban environment and the quality
of the region's water. Since 1991, Tibet has invested a
total of 900 million yuan in carrying out the development
projects in the areas of the Yarlungzangbo, Lhasa and
Nyangqu rivers, playing an active role in the prevention and
control of soil erosion and the halting of desertification
through the construction of water conservancy works, the
improvement of pastures, the amelioration of medium- and
low-yield fields, and large-scale afforestation, achieving
remarkable comprehensive benefits for coordinated social,
economic and environmental development. According to the
environmental evaluation indices, Tibet's ecology, which
basically remains in its primordial condition, is the best
in China in terms of environmental conditions. With the
implementation of the state's strategy of large-scale
development of the western region and the carrying out of
the essential points of the Fourth Forum of the Central
Government on Work in Tibet, the region is strengthening its
eco-environmental protection and planning to invest 22.7
billion yuan and launch 160 key projects for ecological
protection by the mid-21st century to further protect and
improve its ecological environment.
--
Rapid progress has been made in education, science and
technology, and medical and health care.
In old
Tibet there was not a single school in the modern sense, and
education was monopolized by monasteries. The enrollment
ratio of school-age children was less than two percent, and
the illiteracy rate of the young and middle-aged people
reached 95 percent. But now, education has been widely
popularized, and the broad masses of the people enjoy the
right to receive education. The state has invested
enormously in developing education, and a complete education
system is now in place, covering regular education,
preschool education, adult education, vocational education
and special education. By 2000, Tibet had set up 956 schools
of all kinds, with a total enrollment of 381,100 students;
the enrollment ratio of school-age children had increased to
85.8 percent; the illiteracy rate had declined to 32.5
percent; and 33,000 persons had received education above the
junior college level, accounting for 12.6 per thousand of
the region's total population and higher than the average
national level. Now Tibet not only boasts its own master's
and doctorate degree holders, but also a number of
nationally renowned experts and scholars.
Growing out of nothing, modern science and
technology have been developing rapidly. There was no modern
scientific research institute in Tibet before its peaceful
liberation, and even such applied technology as astronomy
and calendrical calculation were monopolized by the
monasteries behind a mysterious religious facade. Attaching
great importance to scientific research and the
popularization and application of science and technology,
the Central Government and the local government of Tibet
have set up 25 scientific research institutes over the past
half century, employing 35,000 professional scientific and
technical personnel in disciplines such as history,
economics, population, linguistics and religion, and dozens
of sectors such as agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry,
ecology, biology, Tibetan medicine and pharmacology, salt
lakes, geo-thermal and solar energy, among which studies in
Tibetology, plateau ecology, Tibetan medicine and
pharmacology take the lead in the country. Besides, a number
of academic achievements made in Tibet are of worldwide
influence.
Medical and health care has grown
vigorously. In the old days, when traditional Tibetan
medicine was monopolized by feudal nobles and monasteries,
the region was extremely short of doctors and medicine, and
most sick people lacked both money for medical care and
access to doctors. Now a medical and health network has been
established in Tibet, integrated with traditional Chinese,
Western and Tibetan medicines, covering all the cities and
villages in the region, with Lhasa as the center. Tibetan
medicine and pharmacology, with unique ethnic features, are
promoted all over China and abroad. By 2000, the medical and
health organizations in the region had increased to 1,237,
with 6,348 beds and 8,948 professionals. The numbers of
hospital beds and health workers available per thousand
people in Tibet exceeded the national average level. At
present, the cooperative medical service program covers 80
percent of the Tibetan rural areas, and 97 percent of
children have been immunized against epidemic diseases.
There is no longer any lack of medicine, and the level of
the Tibetan people's health has improved substantially. The
incidence of various infectious and endemic diseases
prevalent in old Tibet, such as smallpox, cholera, venereal
diseases, macula, typhoid fever, scarlet fever and tetanus,
has declined to eight per thousand, and some of the diseases
have been wiped out. The childbirth mortality rate has
dropped from 50 per thousand in 1959 to approximately seven
per thousand; and the infant mortality rate, from 430 to
6.61 per thousand. The average life expectancy of the people
has increased from 35.5 years in the 1950s to the present 67
years. The population of old Tibet had increased rather
slowly; over the 200-odd years before the 1950s, it had
fluctuated at around one million. (According to the census
of the Qing Dynasty government from 1734 to 1736, Tibet had
a population of 941,200, and the population reported by the
Tibetan local government headed by the Dalai Lama in 1953
was one million, an increase of only 58,000 in 200 years.)
However, over the 40-odd years since the Democratic Reform,
Tibet's population had increased to 2.5983 million by 2000,
or an increase of more than 160 percent.
Considerable achievements have been made in
sports. A number of sports facilities up to the
international standards have been built in Tibet, and
traditional Tibetan sports have been revived, standardized
and popularized, some of them even having been included in
national competitions. Some excellent athletes from Tibet
have scored outstanding achievements in various national
sports games and competitions, and in mountain climbing in
particular Tibetans have always taken the lead in the
country. In 1999, the Sixth National Ethnic Games were held
jointly by Tibet and Beijing, further improving the level of
Tibetan sports.
-- The fine aspects of
traditional Tibetan culture have been explored, protected
and developed.
The state has invested a huge
amount of capital, gold and silver in the maintenance and
protection of the key historical monuments in Tibet. The
Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple have been included in
UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List. The collation of the
Tibetan-language Tripitaka (Gangyur and Tengyur) has been
completed. Known as an "encyclopedia" of ancient
Tibet, the Bonist Tripitaka has been sorted out in a
systematic way and published in its entirety. The Life of
King Gesar, which had been handed down orally for centuries,
has reached the grand total of more than 200 volumes. Thanks
to the great support of the state and unremitting efforts in
the past few decades, more than 300 handwritten and
block-printed copies of this "Homeric epic of the
East" have been collected, of which more than 70
volumes have been published in the Tibetan language, over 20
volumes in the Chinese language, and several volumes in
English, Japanese and French. Folk songs, dances, dramas,
tales and other forms of artistic expression have been
refined and imbued with new ideas and higher forms of
expression for enjoyment by the general public. The state
has invested in the construction of a large number of
cultural and recreational facilities with complete functions
and advanced facilities in Tibet, such as museums,
libraries, exhibition halls and cinemas, in sharp contrast
to the old days when Tibet almost had no cultural and
recreational facilities to speak of. By 2000, the Tibet
Autonomous Region had more than 400 public cultural centers,
more than 25 professional theatrical troupes of various
kinds, such as the Song and Dance Ensemble, Tibetan Opera
Troupe and Modern Drama Troupe of the Tibet Autonomous
Region, more than 160 amateur performance troupes, and 17
itinerant performance troupes at the county level. They can
meet the demands of the broad masses of the people for
cultural entertainment.
-- Tibetan's
characteristics and traditions have been respectedand
carried on in a scientific way.
The Tibet
Autonomous Region has the right to decide its local affairs
and work out relevant laws and regulations in accordance
with the law and local political, economic and cultural
characteristics, as well as the right to flexibly implement
or cease to implement relevant decisions of the state organs
at the higher levels, upon approval by the higher
authorities. Since 1965, the Regional People's Congress and
its Standing Committee have formulated and promulgated more
than 160 local laws and regulations, involving the building
of political power, economic development, culture and
education, spoken and written language, protection of
cultural relics, protection of wildlife and natural
resources and other aspects, thus effectively safeguarding
the special rights and interests of the Tibetan people. For
instance, the power and administrative organs of the Tibet
Autonomous Region have designated the Tibetan New Year,
Shoton (Yogurt) Festival and other traditional Tibetan
festivals as the region's official holidays, apart from the
official national holidays. Out of consideration for the
special natural and geographical factors of Tibet, the
region has fixed the work week at 35 hours, five hours fewer
than the national work hours per week.
The
Tibetan people's freedom of religious belief and their
traditional customs and habits have been respected and
protected. According to statistics, since the 1980s the
state has allocated more than 300 million yuan and a large
amount of gold, silver and other materials for the
maintenance and protection of the monasteries in Tibet. For
instance, the state allocated more than 55 million yuan for
the repair of the Potala Palace, and the renovation lasted
more than five years, being the largest project and
involving the largest amount of capital in the maintenance
history of the palace in the past few centuries. At present,
Tibet has 1,787 monasteries and sites for religious
activities, and over 46,000 resident monks and nuns; the
region's various important religious festivals and
activities are held normally; and every year more than one
million Tibetan people go to Lhasa to pay homage. While
maintaining the traditional Tibetan ways and styles of
costume, diet and housing, the Tibetan people have absorbed
many new modern civilized customs in the aspects of
clothing, food, housing and transportation, as well as
marriage and funerals, thus greatly enriching their lives.
The Tibetan people's freedom to study, use and
develop their own spoken and written language is fully
protected. The government has established the special
Tibetan Language Work Guidance Committee and editing and
translation organs so as to promote the study, use and
development of the Tibetan language. The Tibetan language is
a major course of study for schools at all levels in Tibet.
Tibetan textbooks and reference materials have been
compiled, translated and published for all courses at all
levels of schools from primary to senior high. Tibet
University has compiled 19 varieties of teaching materials
in the Tibetan language, which have already been used on a
trial basis. The laws and regulations, resolutions,
announcements and other official documents issued by the
Regional People's Congress and the Regional People's
Government, and the name plates and signs of public
institutions and sites are written in both the Tibetan and
Chinese languages. The courts and procuratorates at all
levels handle cases and issue legal documents in the Tibetan
language with regard to the Tibetan litigants and other
participants.
Newspapers, and radio and TV
stations use both the Tibetan and Chinese languages. The
Tibet People's Radio Station broadcasts Tibetan-language
items 20.5 hours a day, making up 50 percent of the
station's total broadcasting hours and amount. The Tibet TV
Station releases 12 hours of programs in the Tibetan
language every day, and the channels in the Tibetan language
were formally relayed via satellite in 1999. Now Tibet has
23 Tibetan-language newspapers and magazines, and the Tibet
Daily has installed computer editing and typesetting in the
Tibetan language. Great progress has been made in the
standardization of information technology in the Tibetan
language. The Tibetan code has been brought up to the
national and international standards, becoming the first
minority written language in China to reach the
international standards.
-- The
people's quality of life has greatly improved.
Social and economic development has improved
the people's material and cultural life remarkably. In 2000,
people of all ethnic groups in Tibet had basically shaken
off poverty, and had enough to eat and wear; and some people
were living a fairly comfortable life. Along with the
improvement of the people's livelihood, diversified
consumption patterns have appeared, and such consumer goods
as refrigerators, color TV sets, washing machines,
motorcycles and wristwatches have entered ordinary families.
Many farmers and herdsmen have become well-off and have
built new houses; some have even bought automobiles.
Currently, Tibet ranks first in per capita housing in the
country. Radio, television, telecommunications, the Internet
and other modern information transmission means, which are
at the same levels of the country and the rest of the world,
are now parts of the Tibetans' daily life. By 2000, the
coverage of radio stations had reached 77.7 percent of the
population in Tibet, and that of TV stations, 76.1 percent.
News about the rest of the country and other parts of the
world reach most people in Tibet by means of radio and TV,
and they can obtain information from and make contact with
other parts of the country and the rest of the world through
telephone, telegram, fax or the Internet at any time.
The people's political status has been
constantly raised, and their participation in political
affairs is becoming more extensive with each passing day.
Like the people of other ethnic groups in China, the Tibetan
people have the right to vote and stand for election, and
extensively participate in the administration of state and
local affairs according to law. Of the deputies to the
National People's Congress, 19 are from Tibet, of whom over
80 percent are of the Tibetan ethnic group or other ethnic
minorities. Of the deputies to the people's congresses at
the regional, county and township levels, those from the
Tibetan ethnic group and other ethnic minorities make up
82.4 percent, 92.62 percent and 99 percent, respectively.
The main leading posts of the people's congresses,
governments, political consultative conferences, and courts
and procuratorates at all levels in the region are filled by
Tibetan citizens, and Tibetan cadres also hold leading posts
in all the state organs at the central level. Of the
chairman and vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the
People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibetans
and people of other ethnic minorities make up 71.4 percent;
of the members of the Standing Committee of the Regional
People's Congress, 80 percent; and of the chairman and
vice-chairmen of the Regional People's Government, 77.8
percent; of the total cadres in Tibet, 79.4 percent; and of
all the technical personnel in Tibet, 69.36 percent.
Tibet is still an underdeveloped area in
China, because it is located on the "roof of the
world," which is frigid, lacks oxygen and has bad
natural conditions. Another reason is that Tibet had very
little to start with and its social and historical
conditions were burdened with the legacy of centuries of
backward feudal serfdom. Tibet's economy is small; its
development level is low; agriculture, animal husbandry and
the ecological environment are fragile; the infrastructure
facilities are weak; and science and technology and
education are backward. In addition, Tibet lacks the ability
for self-accumulation and development, and its modernization
level lags far behind that of the southeastern coastal areas
of China. But it is beyond doubt that the development of
Tibet in the past half century has greatly changed its
former poor and backward features, and laid a solid
foundation for realizing a leapfrog development in its
modernization drive.
III. The
Historical Inevitability of Tibet's Modernization
Fifty years is a short period in
the long process of human history. However, in the past 50
years Tibet, an ancient and mysterious land, has undergone
tremendous changes far beyond comparison with those in any
other era. Tibet has bidden farewell to the poor, backward,
isolated and stagnant feudal serf society, and is forging
ahead toward a modern people's democratic society featuring
constant progress, civilization and opening-up, and its
modernization drive has won world-renowned achievements.
First, the situation in which a small number of feudal
serf-owners monopolized Tibet's political power and material
and cultural resources has been thoroughly changed, and all
the people in Tibet have become masters administering
Tibetan society, and the creators and beneficiaries of the
society's material and cultural wealth. As a result, the
people's status and quality have greatly improved. Second,
the isolated, stagnant and declining old Tibetan society has
been thoroughly smashed; economic development has advanced
by leaps and bounds; people's material and cultural life has
greatly improved; the modernization drive has developed in
an unprecedented way; and an overall-progress situation has
appeared in the constant reform and opening-up. Third, Tibet
has thoroughly abolished ethnic oppression and
discrimination and cleaned up the filth and mire left over
from the old Tibetan society; Tibet's ethnic characteristics
and the fine aspects of its traditional culture have won
full respect and protection under the regional ethnic
autonomy system; with the progress of the modernization
drive, they have been imbued with the current contents that
reflect the people's new life and the new requirements of
social progress, and have thus been carried forward in a
process of scientific inheritance.
The
development in the past 50 years has demonstrated the
historical inevitability of Tibet's march toward
modernization, and revealed the objective law of Tibet's
modernization.
-- Tibet's march toward
modernization conforms to the world historical trend and the
law of development of human society, and embodies the
internal demands of Tibet's social development and the
fundamental interests and wishes of the Tibetan people.
Ealizing modernization has been a common issue
facing all countries and regions in the world in modern
times, as well as a natural historical course when human
society is changing from an underdeveloped state to a
developed one, from ignorance and backwardness to
civilization and progress, from relatively independent
development in a closed society to high-speed development in
an all-round way in opening-up, cooperation and competition.
At the very beginning, modernization appeared following the
rise and expansion of the capitalist countries in the West.
For a considerable length of time, the big powers in the
West monopolized the fruits of modernization and used them
in the invasion and colonial rule in the Third World
countries. With the rise of the decolonization movement in
the 20th century, getting rid of poverty and backwardness
and realizing modernization became the road that the Third
World countries had to take to realize their complete
independence and the invigoration of their nations.
Historical development has proved that the modernization
tide is enormous and powerful, that those who go with it
will prosper while those who go against it will perish.
Tibet's productive forces, mode of production and social and
political systems in the modern era were in the extremely
backward state of the Middle Ages, and came near the verge
of collapse after Tibet was subject to imperialist invasion
and control. Ending imperialist invasion and control,
reforming the backward social and political systems and mode
of production and realizing modernization have historically
become the only way out and the most urgent question for
social progress in Tibet. Since the founding of the People's
Republic of China in 1949, Tibet, through the peaceful
liberation, Democratic Reform, socialist construction, and
reform and opening-up, has broken away from the clutches of
imperialism, entered the modern society of people's
democracy from the feudal serf society that lagged far
behind the times, realized high-speed economic development
and all-round social development, and headed toward
modernization step by step. All these comply with the world
tide of modernization and the law of development of human
society, and embody the demand for social progress in Tibet
and the fundamental aspiration of the Tibetan people.
-- Tibet's modernization is an
inseparable part of China's modernization drive, and the
inevitable demand from the people of all ethnic groups in
China to realize common prosperity and the Chinese nation to
realize great rejuvenation.
In the
centuries-long course of historical development, our 56
ethnic groups, including the Tibetan ethnic group, have
jointly developed China's territory, and formed the big
family of the Chinese nation, in which all the ethnic groups
share weal and woe, and are inseparable from each other. As
an integral part of Chinese territory, Tibet has always gone
through thick and thin together with the motherland for
common development. Tibet's progress and development are
closely related to those of the motherland, and the
motherland's destiny directly affects Tibet's future. In
modern times, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and
semi-feudal society; Chinese territory, including Tibet, was
subject to invasion and devastation by the big powers of the
West; and China was confronted with the fate of being carved
up and dismembered because of its weak national strength and
the corruption and incompetence of feudal autocracy. Along
with the victory of the national democratic revolution in
China and the founding of the People's Republic of China,
Tibet realized peaceful liberation, drove away the
imperialist forces, took the course of modernization, threw
off the heavy shackles of feudal serfdom through the
Democratic Reform, and smoothed the road to modernization.
As Tibet is a relatively backward area, its development has
always been the concern of the Central Government and the
people of all ethnic groups in China. In the past 50 years,
the state has paid special attention to the social and
economic development of Tibet. It has given a powerful
impetus to Tibet's modernization by granting it special
preferential policies in terms of finance, tax revenue,
banking and other aspects, offering energetic support in
capital, technology and human resources, investing an
accumulative total of close to 50 billion yuan, sending a
large amount of materials and dispatching a large number of
cadres and technical personnel to help Tibet. We may well
say that Tibet's progress and development in the past 50
years has been achieved under the correct leadership of the
three generations of leading collectives of the central
authorities, with Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin
at the core in different periods. This has been inseparable
from the unification and development of the motherland and
the selfless support of the whole nation; it is also a vivid
embodiment of the new ethnic relations of equality, unity,
mutual help and common development among all ethnic groups
in China.
History has proved that Tibet's
modernization cannot be separated from that of the
motherland, and the motherland's modernization cannot be
realized without that of Tibet. Without Tibet's
modernization, the motherland's modernization would be
incomplete and incomprehensive. Without the independence and
prosperity of the motherland, Tibetan society would not have
new life and development. Only when Tibet's modernization
drive is merged with the motherland's modernization and wins
the support and help of the people throughout the country,
can Tibet tightly grasp the historical opportunities,
realize speedy development, and achieve constant progress
and prosperity. The vigorous development of the motherland's
modernization is powerful backing for Tibet's modernization.
The correct leadership and sturdy support of the Central
Government and the selfless support of the people of all
ethnic groups in China are the powerful guarantee and
necessary conditions for the speedy and healthy development
of Tibet's modernization drive.
-- The
modernization drive of Tibet is the common cause of the
people of all the ethnic groups there.
The
focus must be put on man, so as to promote the all-round
social progress and sustainable development.
The course of Tibet's development over
the past 50 years has been a process of continuous human
emancipation and advance, as well as the all-round progress
of society and the harmonious development of modernization
and the environment. The people of all ethnic groups in
Tibet have always been the mainstay and basic motive power
behind the region's modernization drive, and also the
beneficiaries of the results of its development. Tibet's
peaceful liberation and the Democratic Reform emancipated
the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet from imperialist
invasion and the inhuman bonds of the feudal serfdom, making
them masters of the nation and the Tibetan society. They
showed enormous enthusiasm and exerted all their strength,
and became the principal force propelling Tibet's
modernization. With the sense of responsibility as the
masters of their society, they took an active part in the
great cause of building a new Tibet and a new life. They
struggled in concert, advanced with a pioneering spirit,
laid the first stone for the construction with arduous
efforts, and upheld the principle that economic construction
and social progress should be undertaken simultaneously, and
the economy and environment developed harmoniously. In this
way, they gave a mighty thrust to the modernization process
of Tibet. The achievements attained in the 50 years of
Tibet's modernization drive have fully demonstrated the
success of the struggle of the people of all ethnic groups
in Tibet and embodied the enormous strength of the Tibetan
people. Experience has shown that the concerted struggle of
the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet is the dynamo
propelling the region's modernization drive. Only by
maximizing the zeal, initiative and creativity of the people
in Tibet and channeling the concern of the Central
Government and the support of other parts of the country
into Tibet's own advantages for development can miracles be
created in Tibet's modernization drive. Moreover, only by
proceeding from the fundamental interests and needs of the
Tibetan people and adhering to the sustainable development
strategy can Tibet's modernization drive develop quickly and
soundly.
-- As Tibet's modernization
drive is unfolding in the unique area of Tibet, it must
proceed from Tibet's actual conditions and take the road
with Tibet's local characteristics.
Located on
the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tibet is completely different
from other regions in geographic environment, natural
conditions, historical development, ethnic composition,
religious beliefs, cultural traditions, lifestyle and
customs. The region's modernization drive must proceed from
the actual conditions of Tibet and take into account Tibet's
history and reality. Its primary aim should be to spur the
development of Tibet's productive forces and social
progress, as well as the development and welfare of the
people of Tibet. The adverse natural conditions, backward
social and economic basis and the complicated background of
Tibet's historical development in modern times dictate that
Tibet must take modernization as the key link and realize
rapid development with special support and help from the
Central Government and the rest of the country. In addition,
to realize the sustainable, all-round and harmonious
development of society and the economy, Tibet must correctly
handle the relations between reform, development and
stability, utilize natural resources rationally and protect
the ecological environment.
For historical
reasons, most of the Tibetans in the region are religious
believers and religious influences have permeated Tibetan
culture, art, social customs and daily life. How to
correctly handle the ethnic and religious problems is a
long-standing issue of great importance in Tibet's
modernization drive. The 50-year development of Tibet shows
that accelerating modernization is where the basic interests
of the people in Tibet lie, and also the key to the
realization of ethnic equality and common development. It is
an important guarantee for the sound development of Tibet's
modernization drive to uphold the system of regional ethnic
autonomy, ensure in practice that the people of all ethnic
groups in Tibet, especially the Tibetan people, exercise the
right of self-government in administering local affairs
according to law, and completely respect their culture and
traditions, customs and habits, spoken and written language,
and religious beliefs. Only by observing the following
principles can a modernization road with Tibetan local and
ethnic characteristics be opened up: Focusing on economic
construction; upholding the policies of reform and
opening-up; combining the protection of the freedom of
religious belief with separation of religion from politics;
actively guiding religion to gear to the needs of
modernization and social progress; and maintaining and
promoting Tibet's ethnic characteristics while energetically
developing modern industries, science, education and
culture, and propelling the modernization of Tibet's
traditional industries and culture.
--
The modernization drive of Tibet has been forging ahead
consistently during the protracted struggle against the
Dalai Lama clique and international hostile forces.
As the question of Tibet's modernization
emerged against a complicated historical background, it was
inevitable that the modernization in Tibet was connected
with international struggles. Over a long period of time,
between the Dalai Lama clique and international hostile
forces on the one hand and the Chinese Government and people
on the other, there have been struggles on the "Tibet
issue," with the former trying to split Tibet from the
rest of China and halt its modernization, and the latter
trying to maintain the unity of the country and promote
Tibet's modernization. In modern times, a handful of the
political and religious rulers in Tibet, in order to
safeguard the vested interests of the serf-owner class and
the crumbling feudal serfdom, tried by hook or by crook to
hinder the modernization of Tibetan society, and even went
so far as to collaborate with the imperialist aggressor
forces to unleash the "Tibet independence"
campaign, in an attempt to split the country and prevent the
peaceful liberation of Tibet. After Tibet's peaceful
liberation, the Dalai Lama clique, regardless of the patient
forbearance of the Central Government and the strong demand
of the Tibetan people, spared no efforts to try to check the
Democratic Reform and modernization drive, and, with the
support of international hostile forces, stirred up an armed
rebellion for the purpose of splitting the motherland. When
the rebellion had failed and the Dalai Lama clique fled
abroad, it even did not scruple to collude with the
international anti-China forces to constantly whip up world
opinion, wantonly conduct activities aimed at splitting
China, slander Tibet's achievements in economic construction
and social progress, and by every means hinder and sabotage
the modernization of Tibetan society.
The
Dalai Lama clique and international hostile forces slandered
the peaceful liberation of Tibet and the expulsion of the
imperialist forces from Tibet as "China's occupation of
Tibet"; denigrated the Central Government's efforts to
propel Tibet's modernization as the "elimination of
Tibet's ethnic characteristics"; misrepresented the
rapid growth of Tibet's economy as "destruction of
Tibet's environment"; vilified the concern and support
of the Central Government and the whole nation for the
modernization of Tibet as "plundering Tibet's
resources," "intensifying control over Tibet"
and "Han-Chinese assimilation of Tibet";
calumniated the abolition of theocracy and the secular
privileges of the clergy and monasteries as
"extinguishing religion"; distorted the promotion
of traditional Tibetan culture in the new era and the
unprecedented development of modern science, education and
culture in Tibet as "extirpation of Tibetan
culture," and so on and so forth. In a word, whatever
was beneficial to Tibet's modernization and social progress
and the happiness of the Tibetan people, they willfully
misrepresented and left no stone unturned to oppose. This
fully reveals the reactionary nature of the Dalai Lama
clique, which represents the backward relations of
production of feudal serfdom, the retrogressive religious
culture of the theocratic system, and the interests of the
dying privileged few of the feudal serf-owner class.
Besides, it fully exposes the sinister mentality of some
hostile foreign forces in their vain attempt to utilize the
"Tibet issue" to sabotage the stability of China,
split China's territory, and prevent China from developing
and prospering.
Facts speak louder than words,
and people have a sense of natural justice. It is
universally acknowledged that Tibet is a part of China's
territory, and the progress made by the Tibetan community is
there for all to see. China has conformed to the trend of
the times and followed the wishes of the people in its
efforts to promote the modernization of Tibet and combat the
Dalai Lama clique's separatist activities. It is only right
and proper to do so. The history of 50 years since the
peaceful liberation of Tibet shows that the trend of the
times cannot be checked, and the tide of history is
irreversible. Tibet's modernization and social progress are
part of the general trend and popular feeling. Any lie will
certainly be revealed by the objective facts of Tibet's
development; any perverse acts to turn the clock back,
prevent Tibet's modernization drive and separate Tibet from
China are doomed to ignominious failure.
Human
society has ushered in a new century, and peace and
development are the two major themes in the world today.
China has embarked upon the new development stage of
building, in a comprehensive way, a society in which people
enjoy a fairly comfortable life, and of accelerating the
reform and opening-up and modernization -- a stage in which
the strategy of large-scale development of the western
region, as a part of the third-step development strategy of
China's modernization drive, is being carried out in an
all-round way. With a view to national development and the
actual conditions in Tibet, the Fourth Forum on Work in
Tibet convened by the Central Government set the strategic
objectives for promoting Tibet's modernization in the new
century, from simply speeding it up to ensuring a leap
forward. The forum also determined to further intensify
support for Tibet's development. In this regard, during the
Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) the Central
Government and various parts of the country are to invest
32.2 billion yuan to assist Tibet in constructing 187
projects, and the Central Government is to subsidize Tibet
to the tune of 37.9 billion yuan. In addition, other special
preferential policies and measures are to be formulated. All
this has created new and favorable conditions and rare
opportunities for Tibet's modernization drive. It can be
confidently asserted that, on the solid foundation laid over
the last 50 years and with energetic support and help from
the Central Government and people all over the country,
Tibet will ultimately realize vigorous development in the
process of its modernization drive through arduous efforts,
and witness a still more brilliant and splendid future.
Notes 1. Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of
Modern Tibet (1913-1951): The Demise of the Lamaist State,
University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London, 1989-1991, pp. 37 and 2.2. Dongka Lobsang Chilai, On
the System of Theocracy in Tibet, Ethnic Minorities
Publishing House, 1985. Translated by Chen Qingying,
pp.72-73.3. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, A Great Turn in the
Development of Tibetan History, published in the first issue
of the China Tibetology quarterly, 1991, Beijing.