Report: Chinese Development in Tibet Meets State Needs, Fails Tibetans

China’s development drives in Tibet have pulled the region closer to economic and cultural integration with Beijing but have failed Tibetans themselves, creating a “dual economy” that has seen rural Tibetans moved from traditional grazing lands and into urban areas where the best jobs are held by Han Chinese, according to a report released this week.

Driven by state interests, Beijing’s plans for developing Tibet have left Tibetans “alienated and isolated from meaningful development and modernization,” says the report by the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, “Distorted Development: Chinese Discourses on the Right to Development and its Implementation in Tibet.”

“The international community has repeatedly condemned the Chinese government for their violations of human rights inside Tibet,” said TCHRD director Tsering Tsomo, speaking at a press conference in Dharamsala on Tuesday to announce the release of the report.

“But the Chinese Communist Party has explicitly ignored this by highlighting what it calls the heightened Chinese model of development and infrastructure,” which it says is lifting Tibetans out of poverty in Tibet, Tsomo said.

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