Experts Question China’s Claim of ‘Victory’ in Anti-Poverty Drive in Tibet

China’s campaign to eradicate “absolute poverty” in Tibetan areas of China has been pushed at the expense of Tibetans’ national and cultural identity, eroding minority language rights and forcing thousands of herders into bleak resettlement towns far from traditional grazing land, experts say.

In a press briefing held last week in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa, Chinese Communist Party chief for Tibet Wu Yingjie declared victory in the campaign, saying that 628,000 Tibetans had been lifted out of poverty last year, with 74 county-level areas taken off the poverty list. From 2015 to the end of 2019, the average annual net income of poor Tibetans had climbed from 1,499 yuan (U.S. $223) to 9,328 yuan (U.S. $1,376), and anti-poverty drives have now shifted their focus from eradicating absolute poverty to consolidating the gains already made, Wu said, quoted by China’s Xinhua news service on Oct. 15.

“Authorities in Tibet have made great efforts in relocating impoverished people living in severe natural conditions to areas with relatively rich production materials and better infrastructure,” Xinhua said in its report.

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