Xi visits Tibet, first time as prez; starts tour at border
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) this week, the first time as the country’s leader, beginning a three-day tour at a strategic border city near the India-China boundary in Arunachal Pradesh, on Wednesday.
“Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited the TAR from Wednesday to Friday for the 70th anniversary of Tibet’s peaceful liberation, the first time in the history of the party and the country,” Xinhua news agency reported.
The India-China border in Tibet is of strategic significance to both countries, especially in the backdrop of the ongoing military stand-off in eastern Ladakh area, which on the Chinese side is in the disputed Aksai Chin region.
During his visit, Xi inspected a number of key infrastructure projects including the SichuanTibet railway project and the Lhasa-Nyingchi route, an important rail line under the project, inaugurated last month.
“Xi went to Nyingchi railway station, learning about the overall design of the Sichuan-Tibet railway and the operation of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway section, and then took a train to the regional capital Lhasa. He inspected the construction along the railway during the ride,” Xinhua reported.
According to India-based Tibet expert Claude Arpi, Xi went to Nyingchi to show the importance of the new LhasaNyingchi railway and probably the planned hydropower project on the Yarlung Zangbo river (Brahmaputra river in India) besides sending the message that he cares for the remote border areas of China.