Article Features Progress In Tibet Over Five Decades

To mark the peaceful liberation of Tibet, southwest China, in 1951, the Information Office of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government published Wednesday a long article titled "Tibet: 1951-2001", detailing remarkable achievements made on the "Roof of the World."

The article consists of four parts: First step towards enlightenment and happiness; Liberated serfs become masters of their own affairs; From bankruptcy to prosperity: robust growth in Tibet's economy; Opening up of all social sectors.

The article describes how democratic reforms have opened up the closed Tibetan world to profound economic and social changes in the last five decades.

During this period, astounding achievements have been made in the political, economic, and cultural sectors in Tibet, which entered into an era of fastest growth in its history.

The article notes that the peaceful liberation of Tibet and the ouster of imperialist forces from Tibet safeguarded the unification of the motherland, marking the first step for people in Tibet towards sunshine and happiness from darkness and suffering.

Tibet implemented democratic reform in 1959 in line with the spirit of the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government on the Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, signed in Beijing on May 23, 1951.

The reform, which won broad-based support from the serfs, indicates that serfs and slaves, who had been robbed of all rights from generation to generation in old Tibet, for the first time gained the rights to master their own affairs in the political, economic and cultural sectors.

The founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965 shows that Tibet completed the change from a society of feudal serfdom to the primary stage of socialism, the article says.

According to the Constitution of China and the Law on Regional Autonomy for China's Minority Nationalities, people of various ethnic groups, at or above the age of 18, in Tibet enjoy the right to vote. They have the right to manage the affairs of their own ethnic group.

Statistics show that since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibetans and people of other ethnic groups have accounted for more than 80 percent of all the deputies to all the previous regional people's congresses.

Among Tibet's 19 deputies to the National People's Congress, over 80 percent are Tibetans and people from other ethnic groups of Tibet, the article says.

The regional people's congress and its standing committee has adopted 150 local laws and regulations, which cover political, economic, cultural, education, health, environmental protection and other sectors.

Tibetan and other ethnic group officials have accounted for 79.4 percent of all the government officials in the region. Women officials make up more than 30 percent.

Following the peaceful liberation, Tibet entered the best period in its history, during which the local economy registered the fastest development, the article says, adding that the per capita income of local urbanites has reached 6,448 yuan annually, higher than the national average.

Over the past five decades, the central government invested and allocated a total of more than 40 billion yuan to Tibet, article says. During the 1995-2000 period, other provinces and regions of China invested 3.156 billion yuan to help Tibet build 716 projects which are distributed in the fields of agriculture, industry, communications, energy resources, education, culture, health, radio and television broadcasting.

There was no industry in Tibet before the peaceful liberation, the article says. However, over the past five decades Tibet has developed a modern industrial system which covers power, light industry, textiles, petro-chemicals, machinery, forestry, building materials and ethnic handicraft industries. The region now has nearly 500 industrial enterprises.

Before the peaceful liberation, there was only a small power station with a capacity of 125 kilowatts in Tibet, which supplied electricity only to the upper class. Following the peaceful liberation, the region has developed power generation by hydro-power, geothermal, wind and solar energy. By 2000, the region had built 401 power stations, with a combined capacity of 356,200 kilowatts.

There were no highways in Tibet before the peaceful liberation, but now the region has 15 trunk highways and 375 extension highways, totaling 25,300 kilometers in length. More than 80 percent of the region's townships have access to highways, the article says.

Air services have linked the region with Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Kunming and other domestic and international cities, the article says, adding that marked progress has also been made in the telecommunications sector.

Tibet reported a foreign trade volume of 130.29 million U.S. dollars for 2000. Of the figure, exports accounted for 113.33 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 31.7 percent over the previous year.

By the end of 2000, the region had approved 115 foreign-funded enterprises, involving a contractual volume in foreign investment of 160.65 million U.S. dollars. In 2000, the region received 608, 000 domestic and overseas tourists and earned a tourism revenue of 52.26 million U.S. dollars in foreign exchange, up 44 percent over the previous year.

In the old Tibet, there were only temple education and two small schools run by local government for the children of monks and nobles, the article says. The illiteracy rate was as high as 97 percent at that time.

Fundamental changes have taken place in the cultural sector of the region following the peaceful liberation, the article notes. The government has allocated an accumulated 5 billion yuan to develop the region's educational course, and extended greater efforts to develop education for children in farm and pasture areas.

By 2000, Tibet had 956 schools, with the number of students on campus totaling 381,500. Moreover, 85.8 percent of local children of school age are studying at schools and the illiteracy rate among youths has dropped by 47 percentage points compared with the rate before the peaceful liberation, the article says.

A modern education system, which consists of kindergartens, primary and middle schools, polytechnic schools, schools of higher learning, adult education and video education, has taken shape in Tibet.

The region now has 22 scientific research institutes and more than 60 county, township and village level stations for promoting agricultural technologies. The number of scientific and technological workers totals 34,7000.

The mass media has developed rapidly in Tibet over the past five decades, the article says. The region now has 52 newspapers and periodicals, among which, more than 20 are published in Tibetan. The region has four publishing houses, which have published over 78.9 million copies of 6,600 categories of books. Of the total number, more than 80 percent are Tibetan books.

Over the past five decades, the state and the region have poured 530 million yuan into the radio and television industry of Tibet. At present, 77.7 percent and 76.1 percent of the region's population have access to television programs and radio services, respectively, the article says.

The article says, following the peaceful liberation, Tibetan's religious beliefs have been fully respected and protected, and the traditional Tibetan culture has been well preserved and carried forward.

Currently, the region has 1,787 temples and venues for religious activities. The state has allocated more than 300 million yuan to repair major monasteries in the region since the 1980s. The state also has spent 55 million yuan and large amounts of jewelry, gold and silver to repair the Potala Palace over a period of five years, the article says.

The Potala Palace and the Johkang Monastery are now on the World Heritage list.

The region has formed 25 art groups and more than 160 amateur performance teams. Tibet also has more than 400 museums, libraries, cultural centers and stations, providing colorful cultural activities for local people.

The article says, between 1995 and 2000, Tibet sent a total of 40 art delegations to perform in over 20 countries around the world.

Before the liberation, Tibet had no modern medical organization. Over the past five decades, however, the state has allocated more than 1.8 billion yuan to help Tibet develop medical services and has granted more than 20 million yuan each year as medical treatment subsidies for local farmers and herdsmen.

The article says that by 2000, the region had 1,254 medical treatment organizations, with 10,957 medical workers.

The traditional Tibetan medicine has developed rapidly also, the article says. The number of traditional Tibetan medical organizations has increased from two in 1959 to the current 14. The number of medical workers engaged in traditional Tibetan medicine has risen from 434 in 1959 to the current 1,071.

Rapidly-developing medical services have expanded the average life-span of local people from 36 years in the 1950s to 67 years at present. The infant mortality rate in the region has dropped to 6.61 per thousand from 200 per thousand before the peaceful liberation. The region's total population has increased to 2.62 million from 1 million in the 1950s.

The article says that the 50-year history of Tibet is a history during which, people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, under the leadership of the central government, united as one and marched forward with an iron will, bravery and a pioneering spirit.

The 50-year history of Tibet fully proves that without the Communist Party of China, there would be no socialist new Tibet, and only socialism can save Tibet and develop Tibet, the article concludes.

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