III. Better Protection of Economic and Social Rights

Xizang is committed to promoting human rights through development. By fully and faithfully following the new development philosophy in all fields, the region has improved protection of economic and social rights. The rights of people in Xizang to an adequate standard of living, education, work, health, and social security are better guaranteed.

- The right to an adequate standard of living is better protected in Xizang.

Absolute poverty has been eradicated in Xizang for the first time in its history. The region was once a profoundly impoverished area that led the country in the incidence and penetration rates of poverty, and the cost and difficulty of eliminating poverty was therefore the biggest. After the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xizang has followed guidelines for targeted poverty alleviation and eradication, and carried out five measures through which people would be lifted out of poverty: boosting new industries, relocating the poverty-stricken population from uninhabitable areas, recompensing the poor for their loss due to eco-environmental conservation, improving education, and securing social assistance to meet basic needs. By the end of 2019, all 628,000 registered impoverished people in the region had risen from poverty. Following this success, the CPC and the Chinese government continued with the rural revitalization strategy to consolidate and expand the achieved outcomes. In 2024, the per capita net income of those lifted out of poverty in Xizang increased by over 12.5 percent. 

The right to adequate housing is also safeguarded in Xizang. From 2006 to 2024, the central and local authorities provided over RMB37.26 billion in subsidies to increase the availability of affordable housing. In urban areas, 161,900 public and low-cost rental units, 95,800 transitional housing units for relocated residents, and 1,400 government-subsidized rental housing units were constructed, and 242,600 housing units in rundown urban areas were rebuilt or renovated. About 10,000 people were provided with the annual rental subsidies for urban families eligible for housing support. In rural areas, projects such as relocation for ecological conservation, relocation from uninhabitable areas for poverty eradication, and renovation of dilapidated rural houses were carried out. Before 2016, a project for improving housing conditions for more than 460,000 farming and herding households had been completed. Since then, to ensure safe housing for farmers and herders, 110,800 dilapidated homes in rural areas have been renovated to be more earthquake-proof, and checks and rectifications against hidden hazards have been carried out across 486,600 households. In 2024, the per capita floor space for rural residents stood at 41.32 sq m, 11.74 sq m larger than in 2012. The people of all ethnic groups in Xizang now enjoy adequate and safe housing.

Improved transport infrastructure and services facilitate travel across the region. Between 2012 and 2024, Xizang made a fixed-asset investment of RMB401.93 billion in major highway transportation projects. By 2024, the region had 1,359 km of in-service railways, almost double the length in 2012 (701 km), and it had 183 flight routes connecting the region with 78 domestic and international cities. The total road length grew from 65,200 km in 2012 to 124,900 km by the end of 2024. Roads in rural and mountainous areas have seen overall improvement. By the end of 2024, all towns and townships had access to roads, with 97.99 percent connected by paved roads; all administrative villages had access to roads, with 86.05 percent connected by paved roads. The rural road length increased from 53,200 km in 2012 to 94,800 km in 2024, with the length of high-grade highways rising from 38 km to 1,196 km in the same period. All counties and equivalent administrative units are linked to bus networks, as are 623 towns and townships and 3,869 administrative villages. Bus passes issued in any of Xizang's seven prefectures and prefectural-level cities are also valid in 329 other cities across the country, and people aged 60 and above all enjoy free bus rides. 

Problems of access to electricity have also been largely resolved in Xizang. Since 2011, the region has focused its efforts on building power infrastructure in areas without access to electricity. Priority has been given to waterpower, solar, wind and other clean energy, which make up over 95 percent of all new power installations. In December 2020, the Ngari-Central Xizang Interconnection Project was put into operation. Lying at an average altitude of over 4,500 m, this project has unified the Xizang grid and ensured full electricity coverage for all the 74 county-level administrative units as well as major towns and townships in the region. In 2012, 1.75 million people in Xizang had access to electricity. By 2024, this figure stood at around 3.5 million, with an electricity supply reliability of 99.6 percent. The region's electricity consumption per capita in 2024 was 4,404.8 kWh, marking a 162.89 percent increase compared with 2012. 

The public-interest telecommunications service network in Xizang is continuing to improve. Efforts have been made to turn Xizang into a digital and intelligent region. By 2024, all administrative villages had access to fiber optics and 4G connections; the number of ports of 10G PON and beyond had reached 81,000; a total of 2.87 million households had access to 1000M fiber optic networks; and fixed broadband internet services were accessed by over 1.59 million households. In addition, there were over 3.31 million mobile internet users in Xizang, served by 17,881 5G base stations that provide 5G access to every town and township and 70 percent of administrative villages. A total of 60.5 percent of the mobile phone users in the region, or 2.14 million, were 5G users. The price of cellular data had fallen by 98.6 percent from RMB128.1 per GB at the end of 2015 to RMB1.8 per GB at the end of 2024. Both urban and rural residents have access to fast and reliable internet services, which promotes equal sharing of information.

- The right to education is better protected.

Significant advances have been made in protecting the right to education in Xizang. To meet its people's expectations for high-quality education, the region has significantly increased subsidies covering boarding, lodging, and basic study expenses for children from farming and pastoral areas, as well as those from families in urban areas with financial difficulties. Since 2012, these subsidies have been raised 11 times, with the figure currently standing at RMB5,620 per student per year, including RMB1,000 from the nutrition improvement program. Between 2014 and 2024, the region invested around RMB302.3 billion as government budgetary spending on education. By 2024, there were 3,618 schools at various levels and of different types, 96,600 faculty and staff members, and 970,000 students on campus, accounting for more than 25 percent of the total population of Xizang. In 2024, the region invested RMB254 million into the building, renovation, and expansion of 25 kindergartens, establishing a public service network of preschool education at the prefecture, county, town, and village levels. There are currently 2,474 kindergartens in the region. Specialized teacher training programs continue to be introduced across Xizang to raise the overall quality of teachers, including a special program to train outstanding teachers for underdeveloped central and western regions, a national program to train teachers for kindergartens and elementary and secondary schools, a capability improvement program for vocational school teachers, a special program to train teachers for high-altitude, tough and outlying areas, and a program to support and train rural teachers. 

Historic strides have been made in ensuring universal access to education. In 2012, Xizang led the entire country in providing 15 years of publicly-funded education from kindergarten to senior high school. By 2024, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education reached 91.33 percent, the completion rate of nine-year compulsory education was 97.86 percent, the gross enrollment rate in senior high schools reached 91.56 percent, and the gross enrollment rate of higher education was 57.81 percent. The major educational indicators have reached or exceeded the national average. According to the Seventh National Census conducted in 2020, the number of college or university graduates per 100,000 inhabitants in Xizang rose from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020.

Boarding schools play a vital role in providing education to children from remote farming and pastoral areas, where accessing schools can be challenging due to high altitude, harsh natural environments, extremely low population density and long distances. To address this problem, Xizang has followed the same practice as the rest of the country in accordance with the Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China, that is, providing accommodation service and covering all the boarding, lodging, and basic study expenses for the pupils in some schools. Students and parents can choose if they wish to board at schools, and students can go home during weekends and holidays. Parents take part in the management and planning of the students' boarding life. These measures aim to protect the equal rights of students from all ethnic groups to high-quality education. 

- The right to employment is effectively safeguarded.

Employment services have been improved. Xizang has adopted a unified urban-rural public employment service system covering job recommendation, employment guidance, and job seeker registration. Extensive vocational training is offered across the region, and is open to anyone over the age of 16 in need of a job and training service. When creating training and employment plans, the aspirations and needs of the people are fully respected, and they are free to choose whichever training program, method and institution suits them best. In 2024, 51,000 new jobs were created in urban areas. The surveyed urban unemployment rate has remained below the national average and the number of families with no one in work has been steadily reduced to zero. 

Farmers and herders are given support to find other jobs. Various policies and measures have been implemented to encourage enterprises to create more jobs for local farmers and herders. In 2024, the number of farmers and herders in non-farming employment stood at 648,000, up from 450,000 in 2012, and their total income from non-farming employment reached RMB7.16 billion. Prefectural and city governments also collaborate with employment service centers outside of the autonomous region to provide new opportunities for job-seeking farmers and herders, and to support them in their daily life, lodging, travel, and rights and interests protection should they find work outside of Xizang.

Multiple measures have been put in place to increase the number of jobs for college graduates. Xizang has broadened employment channels by providing internship and social insurance subsidies to encourage enterprises to employ graduates from colleges in the region. It supports colleges and enterprises in setting up employment service platforms like business incubation bases to encourage start-ups, and subsidizes graduates who start new businesses with seed money of RMB60,000 for each person and an annual subsidy of up to RMB24,000 for overhead costs. For consecutive years, the employment rate of new college graduates has remained at a relatively high level.

- The right to health is protected in a more balanced way. 

Equal access to basic public health services is advancing throughout the region. The Healthy Xizang Initiative advocates a healthy and positive lifestyle, focuses on prevention and control of major diseases, and incorporates key health indicators into the overall plan of economic and social development. The subsidy on basic public health services per capita increased from RMB25 in 2012 to RMB115 in 2024, with 80 percent funded by the central budget, to provide urban and rural residents in the region with free basic health services. According to the Seventh National Census in 2020, the average life expectancy in the region rose from 68.17 years in 2010 to 72.19 years a decade later. 

Xizang's medical and health service network has now achieved full coverage. Since 2012, the central and local governments have invested nearly RMB7.6 billion into establishing a five-tiered health service network at the region, prefecture, county, township and village levels. Urban public hospitals, grassroots medical institutions as well as public health service establishments now have better facilities and equipment and can provide increasingly accessible and convenient services. By 2024, Xizang had 7,231 medical and health institutions (including 5,222 village clinics), with 21,551 hospital beds and 29,379 healthcare professionals, representing an increase of 29.79 percent, 112.66 percent, and 159.42 percent, respectively, compared with 2012. And in 2023, there were 5.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people, up from 3.29 in 2012; 8.05 healthcare professionals per 1,000 people, up from 3.67 in 2012; and 3.34 practicing physicians or physician assistants per 1,000 people, up from 1.53 in 2012.

Medical expert teams from other parts of the country have helped to substantially increase the medical service capacity in Xizang. From 2015, 203 hospitals from 17 paired-up provinces and municipalities directly under the central government selected and dispatched more than 2,000 experts to work in teams in Xizang's health system at various levels, helping to improve diagnosis and treatment capability in the region. Additionally, this program helped to train 5,536 local healthcare professionals. Medical establishments in the region received 15.71 million patient visits in 2023, up from 11.67 million in 2012, and the number of tertiary-care hospitals increased from 3 to 17. All public medical institutions at the township level and above can provide telemedicine services. 

Tibetan medicine has been conserved and developed. The region has formulated and implemented a series of policies on promoting Tibetan medicine and encouraging innovation. It has increased input year by year for the application, education, research, and industrial development of this field of medicine. In 2024, there were 51 public Tibetan medicine institutions, up from 28 in 2012. These institutions employed 5,287 professionals, up from 2,232, and housed 3,260 hospital beds, up from 1,364. All community health service centers, 94.4 percent of township health centers, and 50.04 percent of village clinics could provide Tibetan medicine services, up from 50 percent, 71 percent, and 15 percent, respectively, in 2012. The country's first national medical center of ethnic medicine has been approved, a national center for ethnic medicine clinical research, five national-level key clinical specialties, and 17 key medical specialties accredited by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine have been established, and three Tibetan medicine experts were given the title of Master of Chinese Medicine. Efforts are also ongoing to incorporate Tibetan medicines into the National List of Essential Medicines (Ethnic Medicines).

- The social security network covers all citizens.

A multi-layer social security network has taken shape in Xizang. By the end of 2024, the number of policies issued under various social insurance programs totaled about 7.63 million. The figure included 415,000 covered by the old-age pension for enterprise employees, 299,800 covered by the old-age pension for staff of Party and government offices and public institutions, 1,755,300 by the basic old-age pension for rural and non-working urban residents, 779,200 by work-related injury insurance, 426,100 by unemployment insurance, 3,464,500 by basic medical insurance, and 492,300 by maternity insurance. Government subsidies for basic medical insurance for rural and non-working urban residents have increased year by year, reaching RMB705 per person per year in 2024. The maximum reimbursement rate of impatient expenses and of outpatient expenses on special diseases has reached 90 percent. Sixty percent of general outpatient expenses in excess of the annual deductible that has been lowered to RMB50 are reimbursable. A special treatment policy has been extended to cover 38 serious diseases, eight more than the national list. The region has established a medical insurance information platform that is interconnected with similar platforms nationwide, providing one-stop services and settlement in basic medical insurance, major disease insurance and medical assistance schemes, and real-time settlement of medical expenses for treatment incurred outside the provincial-level unit where the patient is insured.

Subsistence allowances in urban and rural areas continue to grow, and now cover a broader range of the population. By 2024, a total of 22,203 urban residents received a monthly minimum allowance of RMB947, and a total of 148,435 rural residents received a yearly minimum allowance of RMB5,340.