Xizang in the New Era: Figures and Facts
Following the CPC’s guidelines for governing Xizang in the new era, and with nationwide support, officials and the peoples of the various ethnic groups in Xizang Autonomous Region have worked together and achieved all-round progress and historic success in various undertakings.
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Sustainable, sound and rapid economic development
In 2022 Xizang’s GDP reached 213.26 billion yuan ($29.35 billion), an increase by a factor of 2.28 compared with that in 2012 at constant prices, representing an average annual growth rate of 8.6 percent. Its economic growth rate ranked among the highest in China.
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As of early 2022, the total road length exceeded 121,400 km, including 1,105 km of high-grade highway. A road network covering the whole of Xizang had been formed, with 20 national highways as the foundation, supported by 36 provincial highways together with many border roads and rural roads. The railway network was extended from 701 km in 2012 to 1,359 km in 2022. The pipeline network transported 31 million tons-km in 2022. Tibet Airlines has been successfully launched, with 154 international and domestic routes connecting 70 cities. In 2022, passenger throughput in Xizang Autonomous Region reached 3.35 million. Up to 96.5 percent of villages have access to threephase power supply.
A total of 8,099 5G base stations and nearly 312,600 km of fiber-optic cables have been installed, and 5G networks now cover all counties, districts and main towns and townships in Xizang. Optical fiber broadband, 4G, radio and TV signals cover almost all administrative villages. Modern cloud and network integration has enabled local people to connect with the
Improved infrastructure
world online.
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By the end of 2019, through targeted poverty alleviation, the autonomous region had lifted 628,000 residents and 74 counties and districts out of poverty. This represented victory in the battle against extreme poverty that had plagued Xizang for thousands of years. The per-capita income of those lifted out of poverty reached 13,800 yuan ($1,899.25) in 2022, growing
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faster than the per-capita disposal income of rural residents.
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Xizang has seen a rapid rise in incomes. By 2022, the per-capita disposable income of urban residents had risen to 48,753 yuan ($6,709.73) from 18,363 yuan ($2,527.24) in 2012, representing a 2.7-fold increase. The per-capita disposable income of rural residents more than tripled from 5,698 yuan ($784.2) in 2012 to 18,209 yuan ($2,506.05) in 2022. The income ratio between urban and rural residents dropped from 3.22 in 2012 to 2.67 in 2022, narrowing the income gap. The per-capita disposable income of the region’s residents as a whole rose to 26,675 yuan ($3,668.73) in 2022 from 8,568 yuan ($1,179.19) in 2012, representing the highest growth rate in China for eight consecutive years since 2015.
Eradication of absolute poverty Promotion of common prosperity ● Revitalization of fine traditional culture
Xizang now boasts three state-level historical and cultural cities, five such towns and four such villages. Eighty villages have been added to the List of Traditional Chinese Villages. Twenty-nine villages were awarded the title of ethnic-minority villages with cultural significance. A total of 4,468 sites of historical or cultural interest of all types have been examined, registered and protected by the local county or district government. Xizang has 2,373 cultural relics protection units under the protection of governments at different levels, 70 of which are key units under state protection. Since 2013, over 100,000 precious cultural relics of all kinds have been carefully protected through digital archiving.
In 2019, the state invested 1 billion yuan ($137.63 million) in the construction of a new campus of the University of Tibetan Medicine, which has trained over 7,000 medicine professionals. As of early 2022, Xizang hosted 49 public institutions of Tibetan medicine; 94.4 percent of township health centers and 42.4 percent of village health clinics in the region provided Tibetan medicine services.
The Central Government and the Xizang local government had earmarked over 325 million yuan ($44.73 million) between 2012 and 2022 for protecting intangible cultural heritage (ICH) items on the national representative list in Xizang, recording the knowledge and skills of the bearers of ICH items on the national list, training ICH practitioners, and building facilities for ICH protection and utilization. There are 106 ICH items on the national representative list with 96 bearers, and 460 items on the regional list with 522 bearers.
The study and use of the Tibetan language and script are guaranteed by law. As of the end of 2022, Xizang had 17 periodicals and 11 newspapers in the Tibetan language, and had published 45.01 million copies of 7,959 Tibetan-language books.
● Fully guaranteeing the freedom of religious belief
The region today hosts over 1,700 sites for Tibetan Buddhist activities, approximately 46,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, four mosques, about 12,000 native Muslims, and one Catholic church with over 700 believers.
Over 1,700 religious and folk activities, including the Shoton Festival, Butter Lamp Festival, Saga Dawa Festival, and the walks around lakes and mountains, help to preserve the solemn traditional rituals and demonstrate new vitality with modern cultural elements. Reincarnation of living Buddhas is a practice recognized and respected by the government at all levels.
The government provides over 26 million yuan ($3.58 million) per annum to cover medical insurance, pension schemes, subsistence allowances, accident injury insurance, and health check expenses for all registered monks and nuns.
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Educational undertakings have achieved high-quality development. From 2012 to 2022, the Central Government invested more than 251.51 billion yuan ($34.61 billion) in Xizang’s education system. At present, the region has 3,409 schools of various types and at various levels, hosting over 944,000 students. The gross enrollment rate for preschool education has reached 89.52 percent. The completion rate for compulsory education has reached 97.73 percent. The gross enrollment rate in senior high schools is 91.07 percent. The results of the seventh national census showed that the number of college or university graduates per 100,000 inhabitants in Xizang had risen from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020. New entries into the region’s workforce now have an average of 13.1 years of education.
Greater efforts have been made to ensure decent housing. Since 2016, the Central Government has provided 1.71 billion yuan ($235.34 million) in subsidies to help 43,600 households in farming and pastoral areas to renovate their sub-standard homes. It has also
All-round progress of social undertakings
supported the renovation of sub-standard homes and improved the earthquake resistance of rural housing for key groups including the newly registered low-income group in rural areas. In 2022, the per-capita living space of urban residents in Xizang reached 44.82 square me
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ters, and that of farmers and herders 40.18 square meters.
Public health services have been strengthened. Local patients can now obtain treatment for more than 400 serious illnesses within the region and for more than 2,400 moderate illnesses within the prefecturallevel administrative units where they live; sufferers of minor illnesses can receive timely treatment at county-level hospitals. The death rate of women in childbirth dropped to 45.8 per 100,000 in 2022 from 5,000 per 100,000 in the early 1950s, and the infant mortality rate declined from 43 percent to 0.7 percent. Over the same period, average life expectancy has increased to 72.19 years.
A basic multi-tiered social security system has been established. A total of 3.43 million people are covered by basic medical insurance, accounting for more than 95 percent of the total population in the region. The maximum reimbursement rate of inpatient medical expenses covered by basic medical insurance has surpassed 90 percent.
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Currently, there are 47 nature reserves of different types at all levels, which cover a total area of 412,200 square km.
Sound ecological environment
From 2016 to 2022, 554,666 hectares of forests were planted in Xizang. It has achieved growth in both forest and grassland vegetation coverage.
There are 1,072 terrestrial wild vertebrate species in Xizang, including 65 species of wild animals under national Grade-I protection such as the snow leopard, wild yak, Tibetan antelope, and 152 species of wild animals under national Grade-II protection. According to the second national survey on terrestrial animals and plants, the number of Tibetan antelopes increased from over 70,000 in the 1990s to over 300,000.
In 2022, Lhasa ranked first among the 168 key cities in China in terms of air quality, and Nyingchi and Qamdo both enjoyed excellent air quality all year round.