The miraculous development of China's Tibet Autonomous Region since its peaceful liberation in 1951 is a remarkable achievement of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people, a Pakistani political and strategic analyst has said.
Due to its high altitude, complex topography and harsh environment, Tibet was thought to be a place where economic growth could only materialize with "Herculean efforts," Sultan Mehmood Hali, who visited Tibet in 2019, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"I was actually preparing myself for a backward area where the people must be poor, and where there must be no facilities. But I was amazed at the array of the highways and the railway lines which had been built through the difficult terrain," Hali said.
In his eyes, "Tibet is one of the toughest battlegrounds for fighting poverty," while the CPC and the Chinese government had managed to eradicate absolute poverty in the region, fulfilling a seemingly impossible task, which manifested the resolve of the Chinses leadership.
"There was the resolve, and the resolve is for the betterment of the local Tibetan people and for the betterment of mankind. Then, success prevailed," Hali said.
The Chinese government has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to lift the Tibetan people out of poverty, said the Pakistani expert.
"They have been relocated in houses, which have the best of facilities, including running water, heating, gas for cooking, as well as Internet facilities ... Besides their residences, they have been provided with pastoral grounds, where the horses and cattle can graze, and where they can build their tents and invite tourists, so that they can earn a little bit of extra revenue," he said.
During his visit to Tibet, Hali said, he had witnessed and experienced the careful protection of traditional culture and the religious freedom people enjoy there, which contrasted sharply with what was sometimes being said about Tibet in the West.
"I saw by visiting different temples, that the rituals were not only being practiced, but they were being preached. And it is a sight for tourists, but also for local Tibetans to come and practice their religion, and there are no restrictions on them. In fact, they're encouraged," Hali said.
The culture and traditions including traditional Tibetan medicine have been well-preserved and developed, he said.
"We visited some centers where we saw patients being treated. And then we also saw some training institutions and universities where Tibetan medicine was being taught to various people," he said.
Hali said that Tibet has also suffered from climate change, but the Chinese government has invested a lot in environmental protection in the region, where the problem of desertification has been taken care of and vegetation has increased.
Over the remarkable development in the last seven decades, "Tibet is connected not only to the world through a massive array of roads and railways, but also through the Internet, which is available to the local people, and for the world to connect and see for themselves what has been achieved by the CPC and the Chinese government," he added.
