China's Xi makes second-ever visit to Tibet as president

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Wednesday for his second-ever visit as China’s leader to mark the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s founding as an autonomous region

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Wednesday for his second-ever visit as China’s leader to mark the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s founding as an autonomous region.

Six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile in India following a failed uprising, China’s ruling Communist Party established the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965, the country’s fifth and final autonomous region after Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi and Ningxia.

The designation was meant to offer local ethnic minority groups such as the Tibetans greater say over policy matters, including freedom of religious belief. But international human rights groups and exiles routinely describe China’s rule in Tibet as “oppressive”, an accusation that Beijing rejects.

“To govern, stabilize and develop Tibet, the first thing is to maintain political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony,” state media cited Xi as saying to senior Tibet officials on Wednesday.

The city of Lhasa is illuminated by colorful lights Wednesday as the Tibet Autonomous Region readies to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Gongga Laisong / China News Service via Getty ImagesXi last flew to Tibet in July 2021 where he urged people there to “follow the party” in a visit largely perceived by outside observers to signal the Communist Party’s confidence that order had finally been established in a region with a long history of protest against Chinese rule.