(TibetanReview.net, Aug21’21) – Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is receiving much heightened attention from Beijing both on account of this year being its so-called 70th peaceful liberation anniversary and in view of the ongoing border flare ups with India. Apart from President Xi Jinping’s Jul 21-23 visit to Nyingtri and Lhasa, three divisions of a delegation led by China’s top political adviser Wang Yang have toured different parts of the region, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency Aug 20.
Delivering his speech at the celebrations to marking the anniversary on Aug 19 on the Potala Square, Wang called for “all-round efforts” to ensure Tibetans used standard spoken and written Chinese and shared the “cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation” in the next phase of the region’s development and modernization.
After the Lhasa celebrations, Wang, the Politburo Standing Committee member and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, led one division of the central delegation to northern TAR’s Nagchu City on Aug 20.
His first priority was seen to be to meet with “members of local Party leadership groups and representatives from various ethnic groups and from all walks of life.”
The report said he presented a congratulatory plaque, on which Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, had written, “building a beautiful and happy Tibet and together fulfilling the great dream of national rejuvenation” to the city.
He has called for more efforts to fully implement the CPC proposed guidelines for governing Tibet in the new era, which include the Sinicization of Tibet, especially its linguistic and religious culture.
Wang was also reported to have visited an ecological animal husbandry industry demonstration park, inspected the building of primary-level Party organizations in a local village, and paid a visit to a local family, a school, and a hospital, as well as announced the opening of an expressway linking Nagchu and Yangbajain.
The report said two other divisions of the central delegation — both led by senior officials – visited other areas of TAR Aug 20, but did not give any further detail.
