Xi Vows to Speed up Tibet's Development While Fighting Separatism

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Tuesday vowed to improve people's well-being, maintain social stability in Tibet and fight against separatist activities led by the Dalai group at a rally marking the 60th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

"To speed up development holds the key to resolving all issues in Tibet", he said when addressing the rally in front of the the landmark Potala Palace in Lhasa.

"The economic and social development of Tibet should always aim at safeguarding and improving people's well-being," he said, adding that the government objective is to ensure that people of all ethnic groups in the autonomous region have access to education, employment, medical and old-age care and housing.

"Social stability provides the very basis for leapfrog development and a prosperous life for people of all ethnic groups in Tibet," he said.

"We should stick to the idea that 'Han and ethnic minorities cannot live without each other, and different ethnic minorities are inter-dependent on each other'," he said.

The vice president said "we should fight against separatist activities by the Dalai group by relying on cadres and people of all ethnic groups, seeking long-term policies and taking measures that address the root cause, so as to completely destroy any attempt to undermine stability in Tibet and national unity of the motherland."

Xi said that Tibet serves as an important national security screen for the country. It also constitutes an important ecological security screen, a major base of strategic resources reserve and a major production area of special highland agro-produce. It is home for the preservation of a unique culture of the Chinese nation and a major international tourism destination.

He said it is China's grand goal is to build a new, socialist Tibet that is united, democratic, prosperous, culturally advanced and harmonious. Efforts must be made to promote leapfrog development and long-term peace and stability, bring about moderate prosperity in all respects by 2020 and deliver a new life of greater happiness for people of all ethnic groups in Tibet.

In 1951, the central government signed in Beijing with the former local government of Tibet the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.

Noting the fundamental changes taken place in the past 60 years in Tibet, Xi said Tibet has achieved a leap forward in the development of the social system and all-round economic and social development.

Over the past six decades, the living standards of the Tibetan people have markedly improved, and ethnic unity in Tibet has steadily enhanced, he said. Average life expectancy in Tibet has almost doubled from the level of the early days of peaceful liberation.

"The extraordinary development of Tibet over the past 60 years points to an irrefutable truth: without the CPC, there would have been no new China, no new Tibet," Xi said.

He continued that as long as we stick to the CPC leadership, the socialist system, the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the development path with Chinese and local Tibetan features, Tibet will enjoy greater prosperity and progress and embrace a brighter future.