In the past 70 years, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has witnessed historic progress in terms of socioeconomic development and provision of human rights under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Lobsang Samdan, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, from Tibet's Ali Prefecture.

Samdan, who is also the vice chairman of Ali's CPPCC regional committee, was speaking during an event known as the Members' Corridor ahead of the closing meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. 

He said that the eradication of extreme poverty last year speaks of the historic progress made by Tibet, which was once a typical poverty-stricken frontier region of China.

As an example of developmental projects being undertaken in the region, the CPPCC member spoke of a power project that was completed and put into operation last year in Ali Prefecture. He said the project had connected the prefecture with the larger regional power grid, thereby improving local power supply.

According to Samdan, 628,000 poverty-hit people in Tibet were lifted out of poverty in 2020. Under the national poverty eradication campaign, the people witnessed a substantial improvement in the provision of their basic needs, such as food, housing, education, healthcare, communication and transportation, he said.