Chinese Premier Li Keqiang tells Buddhist leaders to defend ethnic unity on rare trip to Tibet

Li Keqiang has made a rare trip to Tibet, the first publicly reported visit by a Chinese premier to the remote Himalayan region in recent decades.

During his tour on Wednesday and Thursday, Li visited the capital Lhasa and the southern prefectures of Nyingchi and Lohka, pledging to boost infrastructure investment to improve the economy and calling for ethnic unity between Tibetans and the country’s Han majority, according to government statements released on Friday.

While senior Chinese leaders do visit the region on major anniversaries, presidents or premiers seldom make the trip. President Xi Jinping visited Lhasa in 2011, when he was vice-president, for the 60th anniversary of communist troops entering Tibet.

In Lhasa on Thursday, Li met Buddhist leaders at Jokhang Temple and urged them to defend national ethnic unity. He also stopped at the historic Sino-Tibetan Treaty Inscription that marks an alliance between Tang dynasty China (618-907) and the kingdom of Tibet in the early 9th century – a symbol of ethnic unity in Beijing’s eyes.

On Wednesday, the premier went to a site in Lohka where a tunnel is being built for a railway line between Tibet and Sichuan, a major transport link for the region, saying Beijing would invest more in infrastructure to help the economy in midwest China. In Nyingchi, Li bought Tibetan tea at a shop and visited families who had been relocated from impoverished areas.