Xizang's 75-year leap: From subsistence to development

Editor's note: Qiao Basheng, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor at the Institute of China's Borderland Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, and an adjunct professor at Northwest University of Political Science and Law, China. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

In the 75 years since its peaceful liberation, Xizang has achieved a historic leap in human rights, from subsistence to the right to development. In the past, the question was whether people could survive; today it is about the quality of life.

Xizang was long ruled by a theocratic feudal serfdom system. Under this system, the "three major estate-holders" – officials, aristocrats, and senior monks – accounted for less than 5% of the population; yet they monopolized all land and means of production. The serfs, who made up more than 95% of the population, had no personal freedom, no land or house, and not even names.

A folk song at that time went like this: "Even if the snowy mountains turn into butter, they would still belong to the lordships; even if the rivers turn into milk, we would not get a single sip." The rights to subsistence and development, the foremost basic human rights, did not exist in old Xizang.

In the early years after liberation, Xizang's maternal mortality rate was as high as 5,000 per 100,000. There were only three Tibetan medical institutions in the entire region, modern Western medicine was almost nonexistent. Only the aristocracy enjoyed the right to education, nearly all the serfs were illiterate.

A turning point: People become masters of their own affairs

In 1959, the Central People's Government carried out democratic reform in Xizang, abolishing the extremely corrupt and feudal serf system. Millions of serfs gained personal freedom and became masters of their own destiny.

The reform rapidly transformed production in Xizang, the social landscape and living conditions. By 1965, Xizang produced 290,000 tons of grain, up 66.1% over 1958; its total livestock inventory was more than 17 million head, up 54.1% over 1958.

The central government intensified assistance with a series of preferential policies to support Xizang's development. These laid a solid foundation for the full realization of the rights to subsistence and development in the years that followed.

A comprehensive leap forward

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Xizang has achieved leapfrog development in economic, social, and cultural development. Chinese modernization has advanced, and various core indicators have posted remarkable results.

By the end of 2019, Xizang had eliminated absolute poverty. In 2025, regional GDP crossed 303 billion yuan ($44.53 billion), 170 times that of 1965. As of 2024, Xizang had 183 international and domestic air routes and 78 destination cities, 1,359 kilometers of railway in operation, and a total highway mileage of 124,900 kilometers, with 100% access for townships and administrative villages.

Education in Xizang offers perhaps one of the clearest rebuttals to the narrative that the region remains "left behind." Xizang became the first region in China to implement 15 years of publicly funded education, with children of farmers and herders benefiting from policies covering food, accommodation, and basic study expenses. By 2024, key indicators – including preschool enrollment, retention in compulsory education, senior secondary enrollment, and higher education enrollment –had all reached or surpassed the national average.

Behind these numbers is a far more profound transformation: For the first time in Xizang's history, access to education is no longer the privilege of a tiny elite. It is a widely guaranteed right shared by ordinary people across the region.

Employment and livelihoods also reveal a reality far removed from the stereotypes in some Western narratives. Economic development in the region is not reflected in headline GDP figures alone but increasingly in the ability of ordinary people to secure stable work and improve their living standards.

In 2024, Xizang created 51,000 new urban jobs. Thousands of farmers and herders gained income through transferred employment, a government-backed initiative shifting them into wage labor. This generated over 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion)in labor income.

For many families, this represents not simply economic growth but a tangible expansion of the right to pursue a better life through opportunity and mobility.

Perhaps nowhere is Xizang's transformation more visible than in healthcare. In old Xizang, disease, childbirth, and poverty often resulted in tragedy. In 1951, the average life expectancy stood at just 35.5 years. Today, that figure has more than doubled to 72.5 years.

Maternal and infant mortality rates have dropped dramatically, hospital deliveries have become nearly universal, and modern medical services now extend across even remote areas. From county-level medical networks to telemedicine services reaching every township, healthcare in Xizang has evolved from a scarce privilege enjoyed by a small elite into a broadly accessible public good.

The development of human rights in Xizang is clearly reflected in daily lives. However, driven by political motives, the anti-China forces in the West ignore Xizang's historic transformation from feudal serfdom to moderate prosperity, the remarkable progress in education, healthcare, and employment, and smear the region's human rights situation in international public discourse.

But rumors cannot conceal the reality. All ethnic groups in Xizang enjoy extensive human rights. Today's Xizang is politically stable, economically developing, religiously harmonious, and environmentally friendly. The development accomplished in 75 years is the most powerful declaration of human rights. Any assessment of the state of human rights development in Xizang must be grounded in the historical and contemporary context of its transition from the old society to the new era.

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