No one left behind

BEIJING, Aug. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from Beijing Review:

In 2019, Xizang Autonomous Region bid farewell to absolute poverty, 60 years after its people emerged from the shackles of serfdom. Now, the region, which used to have the highest poverty rate in China, is progressing toward a more affluent, modernized society. The transformation of Xizang, or Tibet, is partly due to assistance from more developed parts of the country.

Thirty years ago, the Central Government made a historic decision to galvanize national support for Xizang. The region's underdevelopment can largely be attributed to its harsh natural conditions. Perched on the world's Third Pole, it has an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters and its air has 40 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Covering an area of 1.2 million square km, about one eighth of China's total land area, Xizang is China's second largest provincial-level administrative region after Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to its north. Nevertheless, it has a population of roughly 3.65 million, according to the seventh national census in 2020. Of these plateau residents, Tibetans account for 90 percent, the Han 8 percent, and other ethnic groups such as the Hui, the Monba and the Lhoba 2 percent.

Under a what China terms as "pairing-up assistance" policy adopted in 1994, some provincial-level regions, central government agencies, and centrally administered state-owned enterprises have been designated to assist specific areas of Xizang. For instance, Beijing and Jiangsu Province have paired up with Lhasa, Xizang's capital city. At the same time, Shanghai, the provinces of Shandong, Jilin and Heilongjiang, China Baowu Steel Group and chemical firm Sinochem Group are tasked with providing assistance to Xigaze, the second largest city in Xizang.

Since 2012, the assistance program has been improved and strengthened. Each year, the 17 provinces and municipalities involved are required to earmark as aid funds 0.1 percent of their general fiscal budgets from the previous year. At least 80 percent of the funds should be spent on projects aimed at improving living standards of farmers and herders. Xizang is industrially underdeveloped, with crop farming and the herding of animals such as yaks, sheep and goats constituting the bulk of its economy.

In 2023, the autonomous region registered a GDP growth rate of 9.5 percent year on year, surpassing the national growth of 5.2 percent. The per-capita disposable income of the region's residents rose to 28,983 yuan ($4,071) in 2023 from 8,568 yuan ($1,200) in 2012. Xizang is narrowing its gap with other parts of China in education, healthcare, transportation and many other areas. 

"I think it's a very important initiative that shows how China pays attention to the underdeveloped regions. It expresses the importance of the unity of the nation in addressing the challenges of poverty and development by making different departments and state-owned companies part of the solution. It also highlights the importance of the allocation of capable human resources in supporting Xizang's development and economic activities," Jose Carlos Feliciano, Deputy Director of the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Pacific University of Peru, told Beijing Review. He traveled to Xizang in July with a tour agency that arranges eight-day tours, taking visitors to Lhasa, Xigaze and the Mount Qomolangma Base Camp.

Pairing-up assistance is one of the methods the Chinese Government has been using to balance development across different regions. The same program is also underway in Xinjiang. It illustrates China's vision of achieving common prosperity by encouraging those who get rich first to help others catch up. The goal is for no one to be left behind.

SOURCE Beijing Review