The XI of China praises unity and development in the surprise visit of Tibet

President Xi Jinping urged the unit during a surprise visit to Tibet, appearing before 20,000 people to score 60 years since China created the autonomous region after having annexed it.

In what is only his second presidential visit to the region closely controlled, Xi praised the local government to “engage in a thorough struggle against separatism” – a reference to Tibetan resistance old decades in Beijing.

The visit to Lhasa, which is at an altitude that could pose health problems for the 72 -year -old man, suggests the desire to stamp his authority in the region.

His published comments did not mention the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has lived in exile in India since he fled in 1959.

“To govern, stabilize and develop Tibet, the first thing is to maintain political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony,” said Xi, according to an official summary of his speech.

His visit on Wednesday comes only two months after the Dalai Lama announced that his office, not China, would choose his successor. Chinese leaders, however, claim that only they have the power to supervise this decision.

The 90 -year -old has always recommended a “median way” to resolve the status of Tibet – authentic autonomous in China – but Beijing considers it as a separatist.

China has long argued that the Tibetans are free to practice their faith, but that faith is also the source of a secular identity that human rights groups say that Beijing slows slowly.

When the BBC visited a Tibetan monastery in the Sichuan province in June, the monks said that the Tibetans were denied human rights and that the Chinese Communist Party (PCC) continued to “oppress and persecute them”.

Beijing says that the standard of living of people in Tibet has improved considerably during his reign and denies suppressing their human rights and their freedom of expression.

The party created the autonomous region of Tibet, or what it called Xizang, in 1965, six years after a failed uprising against Chinese domination.

Thursday, the surprise visit of the Chinese president was the main story of each media newspaper and the television bulletin, where the XI tour of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa was described as a celebration.

Photos published on the first pages showed him the reception by Tibetan dancers and crowds acclaiming.

During his meeting with local authorities on Wednesday, which was also assisted by senior CCP leaders, the Chinese president encouraged the bilateral economic, cultural and personal exchanges towards Tibet, as well as the popularization of a language and national common characters.

XI also described the vision of the PCC for Tibet and stressed what it considers the four major tasks of the region: ensuring stability, facilitating development, protecting the environment and strengthening borders, said Chinese state media.

PCC policies have included new laws governing the education of Tibetan children, who must now frequent Chinese schools managed by the state and learn Mandarin.

XI has also urged stronger regulation of “religious affairs” and the need to “guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society”.

The visit also occurs a month after the CCP has started building the region on what will be the largest dam in the world. The dam – also known as Motoo Hydropower Station – is located on the Tsangpo Yarlung river, which crosses the Tibetan tray.

Once finished, it will go beyond the three gorges dam as the largest in the world and could generate three times more energy.

Beijing says that the diet, costing approximately 1.2 TN Yuan ($ 167 billion; 125 billion pounds sterling), will favor ecological protection and stimulate local prosperity.

But the experts and civil servants reported concerns that the new dam allowed China to control or divert the TSANGPO of cross -border Yarlung, which flows south in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India as well as the Bangladesh, where he fuels the Siang, Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers.