Vision of a Moderately Prosperous Tibet
A herder named Rigzin lived in a village in northern Tibet’s Rungma Township, Nyima County, about 1,200 kilometers away from Lhasa. The village is within the core area of the Qiangtang National Nature Reserve at an average elevation of 5,000 meters. The scenery is beautiful, but the harsh conditions are not friendly to human residents. Many villagers suffered from rheumatism and heart diseases, and the average life expectancy was less than 60 years. Without the necessary conditions for developing public services, the township even had not a single vegetable shop. Because of its extremely fragile ecological environment, Rungma Township became the first pilot project for ecological relocation in Tibet.
On June 18, 2018, after voluntary relocation, Rigzin’s family and 240 other households moved into a village in the suburb of Lhasa. The resettlement site was built with total investment of 226 million yuan ( US$33.8 million), and a modern agricultural and animal husbandry demonstration park under construction, which covers an area of more than 30 hectares, will offer adequate job opportunities.
In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping, chief architect of China’s reform and opening up, proposed a vision of building a “moderately prosperous society.” The report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. As Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects should be based on the situation of specific areas. However, with a vast territory and different situation in different areas, productivity varies, so the goal for prosperity should be different at various levels.
Yang Tao argues that instead of indicators like GDP, three standards for “moderately prosperous” are more important in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities: improvement of people’s living standards, environmental protection and poverty elimination.
Li Jian points out that as the only provincial-level region with contiguous poor areas and a vast area with extreme poverty, Tibet should not only raise
150,000 impoverished people out of poverty, but also ensure that infrastructure facilities like roads and other basic public services are available to all.
In addition to the large-scale support by the central government and local governments, the new direction for poverty alleviation in Tibet should be enhancing local impoverished people’s abilities to create wealth. Tibet boasts very unique landscapes, which makes it an ideal place for tourism and special industries such as plateau farm products processing. Li once visited the industrial park for modern animal husbandry in Tibet’s Coqen County. The introduction of modern production techniques has created many jobs and provided locals the opportunity to earn a stable income and climb out of poverty.
Li stresses the innovative power of young people in the age of internet. “Tibetan millennials who received higher education have led the local farmers to become involved in emerging industries. By developing industries such as planting Tibetan medicinal plants and manufacturing tourism souvenirs, they help the poor earn more money.” The South Asia channel has drawn Li’s special attention recently. With the construction of the South Asia channel and the Belt and Road Initiative projects, Tibet will become the crux of cooperation instead of a landlocked remote area and gain location advantages that will produce more fuel for development.