How four core tasks are driving Xizang's transformation

Every spring, the wild peach orchards of Galai Village transform into a sea of pink and white blossoms, drawing crowds of travelers from across the country to this remote corner in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

"Our village now boasts clean, paved roads, with vehicle and running water accessible for every single household," Nyima Dorje, a village official, told reporters on Wednesday. "It's truly stunning here. We have genuinely turned the vision that 'lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets' into reality."

Driven by the "peach blossom economy," the village's per capita disposable income jumped to 41,300 yuan (about $5,986) in 2025, a staggering leap from less than 2,000 yuan in 2000. The collective income for Galai, home to just over 150 residents, has now crossed the 8-million-yuan mark.

This dramatic transformation offers a microcosmic lens into Xizang's broader modernization, epitomizing Chinese President Xi Jinping's long-term commitment to the region.

Xi visited the plateau in 2025 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Xizang Autonomous Region, following an inspection tour in 2021 for the 70th anniversary of Xizang's peaceful liberation.

Since becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2012, Xi has also presided over two key national symposiums on Xizang and established the Party's strategy for governing Xizang in the new era.

Guided by four core tasks – ensuring stability, facilitating development, protecting the eco-environment and strengthening frontiers – this overarching strategy continues to yield tangible results across the region.

Foundations of stability and development

"To govern the country well, the frontiers must be governed well; and to govern the frontiers well, the stability in Xizang must be ensured first." This strategic maxim, emphasized by Xi in March 2013, highlights the region's role as a critical shield for national security.

Last August, after hearing work reports from the local authorities, Xi stressed that governing Xizang, ensuring its stability and promoting its prosperity must begin with maintaining political and social stability, ethnic unity and amity among different religions.

It is a must to make further efforts to foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and advance the building of this community, he said.

Upon this stable foundation rests high-quality development. Xi has stressed that Xizang must pursue economic growth tailored to its actual conditions, focusing on plateau-characteristic industries like agricultural and animal husbandry industries with local features, clean energy, modern services, and integration of culture and tourism sectors.

Such development demonstrates a people-centered philosophy. The transformation of Xizang's rural areas is essentially about liberating people and realizing their fundamental rights, according to a think tank report released last October.

Historic progress has shifted the region from widespread illiteracy to a 97.86% completion rate for nine-year compulsory education and from limited medical services to treating serious illnesses entirely within Xizang. The UN Human Rights Council acknowledged Xizang's approach of promoting human rights through development, calling it a "global poverty reduction miracle."

Infrastructure has advanced simultaneously. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), Xizang upgraded 3,432 kilometers of major highways and built or renovated 6,595 kilometers of rural roads, and its total road network reached 125,200 kilometers, resulting in a 100% road access rate for townships and 92.48% for administrative villages, according to the regional transport authority.

From ecological protection to prosperous borders

Protecting the eco-environment is the third major task. When Xi inspected Xizang in 2021, his very first stop was dedicated to environmental conservation. He stressed the importance of prioritizing conservation through an integrated approach.

Then in 2025, Xi continued to call on Xizang to advance ecological conservation and make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development and pursue economic growth so as to better protect "the roof of the world" and "the water tower of Asia."

Parallel to preserving the environment is safeguarding the border areas – the fourth major task. In October 2017, Xi sent a reply letter to Zhoigar and Yangzom, two sisters from a herding family of Yumai, China's smallest town in terms of population, thanking them for their loyalty in safeguarding the border area. He expressed hope that the family would motivate more herders to set down roots in the border area "like galsang flowers" and become guardians of the Chinese territory and constructors of a happy hometown.

Border villages such as Yumai embody guardianship of territorial integrity. Through the "Prosperous Borders, Enriched People" initiative, Xizang has built 624 border villages with moderate prosperity, according to the think tank report. "The prosperous lives of border residents and the development of border industries have greatly strengthened the cohesion for safeguarding and consolidating the border."