Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.7, 2017

 

Long-term Thinking on Constructing Tibet in Contemporary China

(Abstract)

 

Xu Zhimin

 

Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, to shake off Tibet’s poverty and backwardness and make it prosper alongside the rest of China, the central leadership with Mao Zedong at the core, combining Marxist theory on ethnic issues with the particular realities of Tibet, gave up the earlier plan of “shifting the troops garrisoning Tibet every three years to enhance morale,” and began to consider a long-term thinking on constructing Tibet that involved making the troops to take root in and settle down in Tibet and the border areas. After reform and opening up in 1978, following the changes in the international and domestic situation, the Central government called on the people to “speed development in Tibet” and realize a great leapfrog progress in Tibetan development, and developed the method of “accountability for particular areas, counterpart support and regular rotations.” That has enriched and supplemented the long-term thinking, and constitutes an important method of and pathway towards the long-term construction of Tibet. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has summarized the Party’s Tibet governance strategies over the past six decades, putting forward the idea that work on Tibet must uphold the important principles of “governing Tibet according to law, promoting the prosperity of the Tibetan people and the region on a long-term basis, increasing cohesion and building a solid foundation,” giving a new historical orientation and epochal meaning to long-term thinking on building Tibet. Clarifying the history of long-term thinking on constructing Tibet and summarizing historical experience provides a historical basis and reference for our work on Tibet in the new period.