Xi Jinping makes rare visit to Tibet as 60 years of Chinese rule celebrated

China’s President Xi Jinping has made a rare visit to Tibet to mark the 60th anniversary of the consolidation of Chinese rule over the long-contested Himalayan territory, state news reports.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said that Xi arrived in Tibet’s regional capital, Lhasa, on Wednesday, where he was met by about 20,000 officials and local people from “all ethnic groups and all walks of life”.

In Lhasa, Xi urged the building of a “modern socialist” Tibet “that is united, prosperous, civilised, harmonious and beautiful”, Xinhua reported.

State broadcaster CCTV said Xi emphasised the need to “guide Tibetan Buddhism in adapting itself to socialist society”.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say they were essentially independent for most of that time under their own Buddhist theocracy.

Communist forces occupied Tibet in 1951, and in 1965, Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s single-party dictatorship established the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Decades of political repression followed, and in more recent years, large-scale migration of majority Han Chinese to the high-altitude region has occurred.

Tibet is largely closed to journalists and foreigners.

China also insists on the right to appoint a reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest-ranking spiritual leader, who recently turned 90 and lives in self-imposed exile in neighbouring India after fleeing Chinese rule in 1959.

Xi’s arrival in Tibet coincided with another rare trip this week by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi to India, where both Beijing and New Delhi pledged to rebuild ties damaged by a deadly 2020 border clash involving troops from both countries.

Tibet is a highly strategic region for China due to its border with India, though Beijing’s latest mega hydropower project in the Tibetan plateau has also unsettled India downstream.

Xi has said the project must be “vigorously” pursued as part of China’s carbon reduction goals while protecting Asia’s “water tower”.