China has announced it is to invest $US12.9 billion in infrastructure in Tibet.
State media reports that the 180 planned investments include an extension of the railway, an airport upgrade, and the provision of drinking water, electricity and telephone lines to remote communities.
A new railway will also be built, linking the capital Lhasa with Xigaze, Tibet’s second-largest city
The projects will be carried out between now and 2010.
The vice chairman of the regional government, Hao Peng, says the new wave of investment will be aimed at remote herding regions, “so farmers and herders and the grassroots population will fully enjoy the fruits of reform and development,” Xinhua reported.
Critics accuse Beijing of seeking to boost its image and subdue discontent among Tibetans by offering development and modernity.
They say China has repressed Tibetans’ religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, whom China denounces as a “separatist”.
The Chinese army occupied Tibet in 1950, and nine years later, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India after a failed uprising.
