China’s Xi makes a rare visit to Tibet to mark 60 years of contested rule

[ad_1] Chinese language chief Xi Jinping made a uncommon go to to Tibet on Wednesday to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Area — the consolidation of Beijing’s long-contested rule over the Himalayan territory.

Xi arrived by aircraft in Lhasa on his second go to to Tibet as president. Video broadcast by the Chinese language authorities confirmed a whole lot of individuals in conventional costume dancing with flowers and banging conventional drums as Xi walked the crimson carpet. Hundreds extra waved flags and white ceremonial Tibetan scarves alongside Xi’s motorcade route.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="In this image made from Chinese government video, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, waves as he is greeted upon his arrival in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, Aug. 20, 2025." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=800&height=450" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=274&height=154 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=400&height=225 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=768&height=432 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=1024&height=576 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YIR26QOL4FEUXFNDP6MUSM7Y6U.JPG?auth=4a31af8e575f87e40c09a763bc6591b4c0771342b7b4ff6cfbc234061706f0be&width=1440&height=810 1440w" width="800" height="450"/> tibet-xi-jinping-visit-lhasa-china On this picture created from Chinese language authorities video, Chinese language President Xi Jinping, middle, waves as he's greeted upon his arrival in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Area, Aug. 20, 2025. (Chinese language authorities media) “One can learn China’s chief Xi Jinping visiting Tibet twice within the final 5 years as an indication that every part will not be rosy inside Tibet as Beijing portrays,” Namgyal Choedup, the consultant of the Workplace of Tibet in Washington, instructed RFA.

“Regardless of greater than six a long time of the CCP’s rule, Tibet is actually a police state and arguably essentially the most surveilled area in the entire of PRC. Xi’s go to to Lhasa to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Area rings hole as a result of Beijing lacks each historic and common legitimacy over its presence in Tibet.”

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="In this July 22, 2021, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, visits the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/R2RXSFC23FA65KLELD6JER6AU4.jpg?auth=e89c2f0b489d675b2104f89176c169e003f6f0c46d17d686da99bacb639a39c9&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> tibet-xi-jinping-lhasa-china On this July 22, 2021, photograph launched by Xinhua Information Company, Chinese language President Xi Jinping, visits the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Area. (Xi Huanchi, Xinhua Information Company by way of AP) Xi was final in Tibet in 2021, the place he urged individuals to “observe the occasion” in a go to largely seen by outdoors observers to sign the Communist Occasion’s confidence that order had lastly been established in a area with a protracted historical past of protest towards Chinese language rule.

“To manipulate, stabilize and develop Tibet, the very first thing is to take care of political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and non secular concord,” state media cited Xi as saying to senior Tibet officers on Wednesday.

Chinese language authorities media additionally mentioned Xi urged the constructing of a “fashionable socialist” Tibet “that's united, affluent, civilized, harmonious, and delightful.”

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="In this image made from Chinese government video, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, waves as he is greeted upon his arrival in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, Aug. 20, 2025." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=800&height=450" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=274&height=154 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=400&height=225 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=768&height=432 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=1024&height=576 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/TLUOYXDBJJEA5P7VYJO635F4BM.JPG?auth=0f34bc597e16859e159ea8b6ada6f9f830552ae36b6e9190f21cd4bbbc011228&width=1440&height=810 1440w" width="800" height="450"/> tibet-xi-jinping-visit-lhasa-china On this picture created from Chinese language authorities video, Chinese language President Xi Jinping, middle, waves as he's greeted upon his arrival in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Area, Aug. 20, 2025. (Chinese language authorities media) Communist forces occupied Tibet in 1951. Six years after the 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile in India following a failed rebellion, Mao Zedong’s single-party dictatorship established the Tibet Autonomous Area in 1965. A long time of political repression adopted, together with the demolition of some Buddhist monasteries and the imprisonment of monks.

Throughout a interval following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when China additional opened its doorways to the surface world, Tibet was rocked by protests by monks and a sequence of self-immolations.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="This March 14, 2008, photo shows protesters gathering around burning debris in the streets of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=800&height=561" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=274&height=192 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=400&height=280 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=768&height=538 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=1024&height=718 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/YVOLIEJIRVGV3CF5SHA5KJHSV4.jpg?auth=6d1bd414dc4a29b67dcfefe1f0f05681f5744213794d17df6f26eddf2b3d40ce&width=1440&height=1009 1440w" width="800" height="561"/> tibet-lhasa-china-protest This March 14, 2008, photograph reveals protesters gathering round burning particles within the streets of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Area. (AP) Latest years have seen the digital closure of Tibet to journalists and foreigners, the removing of Tibetan kids from their households to boarding colleges the place they're taught in Mandarin, and the repression of all types of political or cultural expression outdoors Communist Occasion management.

The Dalai Lama, who in July celebrated his ninetieth birthday at his house in exile in Dharamsala, India, acknowledged that upon his demise, he can be reincarnated as the subsequent non secular chief and that solely the Gaden Phodrang Belief — his basis — can be approved to establish his successor.