Xi Jinping tells Tibetans they’re at ‘a new historical starting point’

Name: Chinese President Xi Jinping makes first trip to Tibet in a decade
Uploaded: 2021-07-23T02:21:47.000Z
Duration: 1 min 10 s
Description: Chinese President Xi Jinping makes first trip to Tibet in a decade

Chinese president is leading a senior delegation in Lhasa to mark 70 years since the ‘peaceful liberation’ of Tibet

He calls the Communist Party’s policies there ‘completely correct’ and urges Tibetans to follow its socialist path

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Chinese President Xi Jinping is greeted on his visit to the Tibet autonomous region. Photo: Xinhua

William ZhengandMimi Lau

Published: 10:21am, 23 Jul 2021Updated: 9:23pm, 29 Jul 2021

After more than a decade, President Xi Jinping returned to Lhasa on Thursday, leading a delegation to mark the 70th anniversary of what Beijing calls the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

State news agency Xinhua on Friday said Xi had arrived in the city – one of the highest in the world at an altitude of 3,656 metres (12,000 feet) above sea level – after visiting Nyingchi in the south of the region a day earlier.

Speaking in Lhasa, Xi called the ruling Communist Party’s policies in the Himalayan region “completely correct” and urged Tibetans to follow its socialist path to “write a new chapter of lasting stability and high-quality development”.

“Now, China has embarked on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, the development of Tibet also stands at a new historical starting point,” Xi said, according to Xinhua. He said that through socialism with Chinese characteristics and national unity the “dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” could be realised.

Xi also stressed on the need for Tibetan Buddhism to “adapt to the socialist society” during a visit to the Drepung Monastery in the west of Lhasa on Thursday.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping makes first trip to Tibet in a decade

The president also met local officials, telling them to strengthen national unity and patriotic education to counter separatism.