(The 100th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China) Tibetology Expert: The peaceful liberation of Tibet has opened up a historical path of development and progress

　　China News Service, Lhasa, March 12th, title: Tibetology Expert: The peaceful liberation of Tibet has opened up a historical path for development and progress

　　China News Agency reporter Jiang Feibo

　　"The most fundamental development and progress in the 70 years of Tibet's peaceful liberation is the development and progress of people." Zhu Xiaoming, former party secretary and researcher of the China Tibetology Research Center, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency recently.

　　Due to historical reasons, until the founding of New China in 1949, the imperialist forces of aggression remained in Tibet. Not only did they not withdraw, they intensified their attempts to obstruct and interfere in China's peaceful liberation of Tibet.

In November 1949, the Kashag government of Tibet decided to send so-called "goodwill missions" to foreign countries to seek political support and military assistance for "Tibet independence", which intensified the danger of Tibet's separation from China.

Under the complicated internal and external situation, leaders of countries such as Mao Zedong began to consider sending troops to Tibet.

　　Tan Rongsheng, the son of Lieutenant General Tan Guansan, the former political commissar of the Eighteenth Army of the People's Liberation Army, recalled to reporters from China News Agency that in early 1950, the Eighteenth Army of the Fifth Corps of the People's Liberation Army, originally scheduled to be stationed in southern Sichuan, received a new mission to enter Tibet during its march.

After consideration, the head of the Southwest Bureau selected Zhang Guohua, a young and powerful army commander, and Tan Guansan, a political commissar with rich political experience, to lead the 18th army into Tibet.

　　The Eighteenth Army has nearly a hundred backbones from the Red Army period. Many people describe the difficulty of entering Tibet as the second "Long March."

　　Zhang Xiaokang, the daughter of Lieutenant General Zhang Guohua, recalled to a reporter from China News Agency that during his visit to Tibet, the troops had experienced three "food shortage crises" in Ganzi, Qamdo, and Lhasa.

The image of the old song sung in the army records the hardship at that time: Our army just arrived, and it was difficult to supply the mountains and rivers... The Tibetans lived a hard life, and we survived the food shortage... Catching voles, sparrows, and busy all over the mountains.

　　Former member of the Eighteenth Army, former Secretary of the CPC Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Region, Luosang Qunpei, son of Luosang Cicheng, introduced to reporters that his father and grandfather were carpenters in Batang, Sichuan. In 1949, his father joined the CCP in the outskirts of Batang. Progressive organization.

　　"The conditions for entering Tibet were extremely difficult." Lausanne Chompei said that after the Battle of Qamdo in October 1950, his father became one of the advance team members for Lhasa.

Probably after the march to the present Baxu and Ranwu areas, there was no food. Everyone had to beat voles and dig wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.

In 1951, Luosang Quzhen, a mother who was also a member of the Eighteenth Army, carried herself only 8 months old, and walked into Tibet like the soldiers.

　　On October 26, 1951, the main force of the Eighteenth Army arrived in Lhasa. Before entering the city, Army Commander Zhang Guohua looked back at the countless mountains, recalling the comrades and men who died on the march, tears bursting down.

He said: "If I came here to try something, it would be wrong. I, Zhang Guohua, went to work as a long-term job for the Tibetan people."

　　In 1951, the "Agreement between the Central People's Government and the Tibetan Local Government on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" was signed in Beijing.

Since then, after the middle of the 16th century, the 400-year low period of Tibetan society has come to an end after the monks and aristocrats ruled by the integration of politics and religion, and after the two British invasions.

It has been 70 years since the Eighteenth Army entered Tibet to carry out the mission of peaceful liberation. Zhu Xiaoming believes that the border governance of the CCP is fundamentally different from that of previous feudal dynasties.

　　“Central dynasties of successive dynasties have achieved rule over the majority of ethnic minorities and border areas by uniting and winning over the upper classes of local ethnic minorities. Its historical limitation is that it only focused on the upper strata and did not really care about the suffering of ethnic minorities.” Zhu Xiaoming said, The CCP fundamentally focuses on the majority of ethnic minorities, and at the same time unites with the upper echelons to achieve true ethnic equality.

　　He analyzed that the peaceful liberation of Tibet opened up a historical path of development and progress.

From a historical perspective, compared with the early 1950s, Tibet has successively implemented democratic reforms, abolished feudal serfdom, implemented ethnic regional autonomy, established the people’s power and the basic socialist system; carried out reforms and opening up, and developed productive forces. Earth-shaking changes have taken place in the appearance of urban and rural areas and people's lives.

From a realistic perspective, Tibet’s development and progress since its peaceful liberation and democratic reform have drawn an ancient, closed, and conservative medieval society into the modern society of the 21st century.

"Compared with the neighboring countries and regions in the Himalayas, the starting point of Tibet's development in modern times has been lower than that of them, but the speed and prospects of Tibet's development are unattainable."

　　In October 2020, China officially announced that Tibet has historically eliminated absolute poverty and that 628,000 poor people have been lifted out of poverty in five years.

Zizala, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, introduced in his government work report in 2021 that in 2020, the per capita net income of the poor in Tibet will exceed 10,000 yuan.

"Democratic reform has enabled the Tibetan social system to cross a thousand years, and the fight against poverty has enabled the Tibetan people's lifestyle to cross a thousand years." (End)