Sustainable Development and Transformative Change of Tibet in China from 1951 to 2021

1. Introduction

More than seventy years ago, in October 1951, Tibet transitioned from a largely feudal regime into a socialist regime formally referred to as the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) within the People’s Republic of China [1]. The people of Tibet broke free from the fetters of invading imperialism for good, embarking on a bright road of unity, progress, and development with all the other ethnic groups in China [2]. After 70 years, at the 70th Anniversary, the Tibet Autonomous Region celebrated the achievements over the past 70 years, such as poverty alleviation, social equity, and environmental improvement [2]. However, the progress and achievements were not well understood by a large part of the world, especially for westerners who have never been to China and understand its history. It is useful to examine the data on Tibet’s trajectory over the past seven decades in order to understand both the development experienced by the region and the persistent disparity exist between TAR and other provinces in China, as well as urban and rural regions within TAR.

TAR has undergone tremendous changes since the 1950s, much like the rest of China. Evidence shows that the livelihood of Tibetans has improved significantly, with TAR’s economic growth rates exceeding China’s national average [3]. Since 1984, the central government has promulgated policies requiring Ministries and provinces across China to invest substantial funding for infrastructure development in TAR, in an attempt to narrow the region’s development gap with the rest of the country. This infrastructure and assistance-oriented development has made great achievements, with the socioeconomic situations greatly improved, and the gap between TAR and other provinces in China is gradually narrowing down [4]. However, many Westerners have voiced opposition, noting that Tibetans may end up excluded or marginalized by such subsidy-driven development due to a lack of self-determination [5]. Moreover, some scholars also claim that the construction of large-scale projects has degraded environment in Tibet [3,6], ignoring the accessibility and connectivity that these infrastructures bring, and also the environmental improvements because of the policies that try to protect Tibet and the whole Qinghai-Tibet plateau as an ecological barrier [7,8]. It is also need to acknowledge that the gap between TAR and other provinces still exists [9], especially regarding inequality and poverty, and within TAR there are also significant regional differences [10]. The ideology difference between Western and Chinese scholars has made understanding the changes in TAR more difficult, and a thorough examination of the social, economic, and environmental indicators of change in TAR is crucial to objectively understand the development of TAR, and also forming policies for further development.

Balancing the development and environment is important in TAR, as solely focusing on socioeconomic improvement may be at the price of environmental degradation. In recent years, scholars have increasingly focused on analyzing the socio-economic and environmental changes in Tibet, shedding light on the complexities of its development trajectory. It has been found that the total scale of human activities was relatively small before 1990. The GDP was less than 2 billion yuan and the urbanization rate was below 17%. The influence of human activities on the ecological environment has been smaller. From 1990 to 2000, human activities and their effects on the ecological environment were accelerated when pollution per capita increased. Since 2000, while the scale of human activities has expanded, the impacts on the environment gradually transformed from a net degradation to a net recovery [11]. Studies have found the constraint of Tibet’s fragile ecological environment on the development of secondary industries, intending to propose several feasible strategies for balancing ecological protection with industrial and economic development in Tibet [12]. For example, Tibet’s tourism economy and transportation infrastructure can bring negative pressure to the ecological environment [13]. While analyzing the coupling relationship between economic development and the ecological environment in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, Li proposed policy recommendations such as optimizing industrial structure and strengthening green supervision [14]. These studies all emphasized the need to formulate sustainable development strategies to alleviate the ecological degradation while pursuing socioeconomic development in Tibet.

To further understand Tibet’s evolution, additional studies have examined various aspects of its development. From the perspective of sustainable socioeconomic development, it has found that improving education levels can reduce the pressure brought by the annual increase in Tibet’s population on local resources [15,16]. While examining the changes in urban economic development and the livelihoods of farmers and herdsmen during the process of urbanization, as well as the impact of urbanization on Tibet’s social structure, it has found that Tibet’s urbanization development capability faces severe challenges, such as the dominance of traditional agricultural and pastoral livelihood, low population density, limited employment opportunities, fragile environment, and low carrying capacity [17]. Because of the vulnerable environment, there are many uncertainties related to the livelihoods of people in TAR [18], for example, the snow disaster may cause local households to fall back into poverty as many of them in the high altitude depend on grazing [19,20], it would be better to establish a mechanism for sustainable development, such as farming and livestock insurance for farmers and herdsmen [21], and diversifying their livelihood [22].

Tibet’s development cannot be separated from the support from China’s central government and other provinces. In 2000, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Fifteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed a Western Development Strategy, using the surplus economic development capacity in the Eastern region to drive the comprehensive socio-economic development in western provinces. This strategy has had a positive impact on various aspects of Tibet, including its economy, infrastructure, and environment. Many eastern provinces and cities have made partnerships with cities in the Tibet Autonomous Region to accelerate local development, and contribute significantly to the local development. Financial, talent and policy support of TAR has become a national system which promoted the economic and social development of Tibet through continuous support and improvement of the assistance system [23,24]. For example, fiscal support for agriculture has had a positive role in promoting the development of Tibet’s agricultural economy [25,26]. However, besides the assistance and support, endogenous power for local development is also indispensable. Tibet’s science and technology innovation policies have promoted high-quality economic development in Tibet [27]. The implementation of these policies and measures provides strong support for Tibet’s industrial structure adjustment, agricultural economic development, scientific and technological innovation, poverty alleviation, and environment restoration, and promotes Tibet towards sustainable development.

This article examines TAR’s economy, society, and ecology through 16 indicators over the past 70 years. Our goal is to provide a rough synopsis of the economic and social development in TAR, especially from the perspective of gaps between Tibet and the rest of China, the extent to which they have narrowed or improved, and if so, what development measures and government policies might have contributed to such changes.

2. Materials and Methods

Data for the social, economic, and ecological indicators in this study were obtained from the following sources: China Statistical Yearbook (1951-2022), Tibet Statistical Yearbook(1951-2022), China Population Statistical Yearbook(1951-1987) and China Population & Employment Statistical Yearbook(1988-2022), Central Budget and Final Accounts Public Platform(https://www.mof.gov.cn/zyyjsgkpt), and China Statistical Yearbook on Environment(1998-2022). The indicators used in this article were selected to cover basic aspects of society, including population, economic income, transportation, education, medical care, etc., as far as possible), and also based on their connection with the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the overall availability of data. Change of the indicators along with time were presented on the coordinate axis. Information about funding assistance by other provinces in China, as well as major policy initiations on the Tibet work symposium by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was collected online.

3. Results

3.1. Rapid Development of Tibet

In the past 70 years, most of Tibet’s social, economic, and ecological indicators demonstrated substantial progress (Figure 1). Before 1951, 5% of Tibetan elites including local administrative officials, nobles and upper-ranking lamas in monasteries owned 95% of the region’s resources and property, leaving only the remaining 5% for the rest of the population [10]. By the end of 2020, extreme poverty was eliminated in TAR and the standard of living has increased substantially. In these 70 years, Tibetan’s average life expectancy increased from 35.5 to 71.1 years, and GDP has increased from 129 million CNY to more than 190 billion CNY. Accessibility within TAR, as well as between TAR and other Chinese provinces has also been largely improved. Despite environmental degradation resulting from increased accessibility and development, many ecological indicators, such as the area of nature reserves and the number of endangered species, have shown improvement since the 1980s.

Tibet has also shifted from its traditional reliance on agriculture and animal husbandry towards diversified industries, with emerging tertiary industries now serving as one of the main drivers of its economic growth. By the end of 2020, the tertiary industry in the Tibet Autonomous Region had accounted for a remarkable 50.1% of its GDP. Benefiting from Tibet’s abundant tourism resources and unique ecological conditions, the cultural tourism industry in Tibet is rapidly flourishing. In 2019, TAR realized tourism revenue of 55.928 billion yuan, with tourism revenue accounting for 32.94% of its GDP, indicating an overall upward trend in comprehensive development. In terms of energy development, Tibet is also making significant progress. While actively promoting sustainable and green energy utilization to protect its fragile ecological environment, Tibet made remarkable achievements in 2019, with the proportion of renewable energy consumption in Tibet accounting for 88.7% of the total electricity consumption, and the proportion of non-hydropower renewable energy consumption accounting for 20.9%, ranking first and second respectively at provincial level [22]. The rapid development of these emerging industries not only boost Tibet’s economic growth but also provides more employment opportunities for residents, thereby promoting comprehensive socioeconomic development.

Over the past 70 years, TAR has seen significant environmental improvement initiatives. These efforts have focused on various areas such as conservation, afforestation, wildlife protection, and national parks. Many policies and projects were implemented to protect TAR’s unique ecosystems, including the establishment of nature reserves and protected areas, pushing forward conservation programs for endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope, snow leopard, and Tibetan wild yak. There are 47 nature reserves in TAR in 2024, with an area of 0.41 million km², around 33.68% of the total area [28]. The forest and grassland coverage rates are 12.31% and 47% in 2021, respectively, and the natural environment is gradually improving. With these environmental restoration policies and projects, the number of endangered species has greatly increased [29,30]. Especially for the animals like Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), Tibetan wild ass (Equus kiang), Tibetan gazelle (Procapra picticaudata), blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), wild yak (Bos mutus), and brown bear (Ursus arctos pruinosus) [31,32,33]. The number of Tibetan antelope has recovered from less than 70,000 in the 1980s and 1990s to around 200,000 by 2015 and has since surged to around 300,000 in 2021 [33,34].

3.2. Causes of Development in Tibet

Much of this development has occurred alongside significant central fiscal transfers of payment and assistance from other Chinese provinces [15]. Central fiscal transfers of payment largely made-up TAR’s revenue and expenditure gap compared with the rest of China, accounting for 90% of the region’s total governmental expenditures (198 billion CNY) in 2019 (see Figure 1). The central government has also issued a series of policies to encourage China’s more developed provinces and cities to provide TAR with funding assistance, technology transfer, infrastructure investment, industry building, talent support, and so forth since 1994, on the third meeting on work in Tibet (Table 1). Moreover, each city within TAR has built assistance partnerships with one or more other provinces (or cities) of China. For example, Guangdong Province invested 430.71 million CNY in the Tibetan city of Nyingchi in 2018 to improve its industrial structure, education quality, and medical facilities. Shanghai has more than 30 years of partnership relation with Shigatse city, and has contributed to knowledge and technology transfer, capacity building and training, infrastructure investment, resources donation, and leaders exchange and communication. From 1994 to 2020, approximately 50 billion RMB was invested in more than 10,000 projects in TAR by other provinces and cities, which has greatly contributed to local development.

Educational assistance is also a key initiative in TAR, including establishing new schools in TAR and sending outstanding teachers from other provinces to TAR, and also setting up schools for Tibetan students in eastern cities such as Beijing and Tianjin [35]. Since 1985, Inner Tibet junior high school classes have been established in 20 secondary schools in 13 provinces and municipalities nationwide, and Inner Tibet senior high school classes have been established in 30 secondary schools in 20 provinces and municipalities. Additionally, starting in 2020, Inner Tibet vocational classes have been launched in 12 economically developed regions in the eastern and central parts of China, such as Tianjin and Hebei. This provides an important platform for cultural exchanges between Tibet and the other parts of China [36].

Since May 13, 2019, Tibet has further increased its financial investment in medical and health care with the help of other provinces. The government is actively strengthening grassroots medical infrastructure construction, increasing public medical and health equipment, and introducing and cultivating professional medical personnel. With the construction of medical centers in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the coverage rates of township and village health centers have reached 94.4% and 42.4%, respectively [37].

3.3. Indicators Need to Be Improved

Despite the reduction in economic and social disparities between TAR and the rest of China, a significant gap nonetheless remains between TAR and the average level of China, and uneven development within TAR also has persisted (see Figure 2). Uneven development of course characterizes China as a whole. After the reform and opening up of China’s economy in 1978, economic development in coastal areas far exceeded that in western provinces, including TAR [38]. This gap between eastern coastal and western inland China is expanding [39]. Especially regarding GDP per capita, and illiteracy rate. In TAR, the urban-rural gap is also greater than China as a whole, as illustrated in Figure 2(D).

TAR has developed substantially over the past 70 years, especially over the past three decades, with the help of policies for Tibet development. This economic growth has had positive effects on other aspects of development. For example, investment in medical care and improvement of living standards have played an important role in expanding life expectancy, especially in the harsh environments of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Literacy rates have improved, but remain low compared to the rest of China.

4. Conclusion and Discussion

Significant social, economic, and ecological progress has been achieved in Tibet in the past 70 years, extreme poverty has been eradicated, life expectancy and GDP have increased significantly. Ecological indicators such as areas of soil erosion under control, number of nature reserves, rates of wetland and forest coverage have also improved. This progress is largely attributed to substantial fiscal transfers from the central government and aid from other provinces.

As a result of China’s redistribution policy of overcoming regional uneven development, TAR’s development is highly dependent on external support [40], potentially undermining the region’s development autonomy [3,41]. This approach, as discussed nationally, is intended to strengthen national unity while achieving the modernization of Tibetan society [42]. Some agree that this approach has helped establish a basic framework for socio-economic development in TAR, which can further promote TAR’s own productivity [43], while others maintain it makes Tibetans more dependent on external assistance at the expense of their own autonomy and self-determination [5,44]. The debate elicits strong views on either side, yet this model of developmental assistance is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Despite outside assistance, TAR has yet to reach China’s national average development levels and also has yet to address widening uneven development within the region [44]. Several factors, political and geographic, exacerbate the dynamic, including growing geopolitical tensions, especially between China and India, and extreme environmental conditions given the altitude and landscape of the territory [41]. Located in the core of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and at the western edge of China, TAR has many high-relief mountains and low-lying rivers, which contribute to environmental extremes and inaccessibility. The Chinese government has focused on the redistribution of wealth to avoid uneven development between eastern provinces and western provinces of China, this may create an atmosphere of dependency that further contribute to low efficiency and low economic returns [3]. On top of this, the uneven distribution of financial support sent to urban and rural areas within TAR [43] has the potential to further exacerbate uneven development rather than ameliorate it [45]. Reaching China’s goal of common prosperity for everyone is likely to require not only economic redistribution but also a serious examination of the atmosphere of dependency that has been created by financial transfers and further leverages the opportunities for sustainable development and self-development.

Tibet still lags behind the national average in development, and the issue of uneven development persists. For example, there is a big gap between the illiteracy rate over 15 years old between Tibet and the average of China. The illiteracy rate is still higher than 30% in Tibet, but it is lower than 10% in China as a whole in 2019. There is also a big disparity between cities in Tibet, especially between the capital city of Tibet and other cities. It is necessary to target the indicators that need to be improved, for example, the illiteracy rate, to facilitate the transformative change of Tibet.

External support may undermine its development autonomy, exacerbated by political and geographical factors. To achieve the goal of common prosperity, it is necessary to carefully examine the dependency created by fiscal transfers and fully use the resources for local development. The external support should also be multi-dimensional, for example, education and knowledge transfer, and targeting for long-term sustainable development. Recent assistance by other provinces has gradually gone beyond the financial assistance, and leveraged resources for inclusive development in Tibet.