(TibetanReview.net, Aug16’20) – Visiting the region on an inspection tour, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Aug 14 called for efforts in safeguarding the security and advancing the economic and social development of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), reported China’s official cgtn.com Aug 15. He visited the border area to learn about the situation of poverty alleviation, infrastructure building and the construction of villages, the local party mouthpiece Tibet Daily was cited as having reported.
Meeting with Wu Yingjie, TAR’s Party secretary, and Qizhala, chairman of the TAR government, and other local officials, Wang stressed that the security and stability of the region was important to the overall development of China, reported the country’ s party mouthpiece globaltimes.cn Aug 15.
The report also stressed that Wang’s trip took place against the backdrop of China-India border clash in the Galwan Valley in June.
Addressing top local party and government officials, Wang has said that given the new period of major changes that’s rarely been seen in a century and the complicated influence brought by the global coronavirus pandemic, the diplomatic front will work with people in Tibet to ensure regional stability, China’s national security and support Tibet’s opening-up and cooperation with the outside world as well as economic and social development.
The report said Wang conducts special “research trips” to several Chinese regions every year, referring to a visit to the China-Myanmar border in Feb2019, and to Chongqing Municipality to investigate the promotion of Belt and Road initiative in Aug 2019.
The foreign minister’s visit to the TAR came just a month after a three-day inspection tour of the region by Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee. He was reported to have called for raising the social awareness of the region’s religious believers that they are, above all, citizens of China, while also emphasizing the promotion of patriotism and the further adaptation of Tibetan Buddhism to the socialist society during his Jul 6-8 visit.