China would need to build an ‘impregnable fortress’ in Tibet to maintain its stability and ensure its future prosperity.
This is according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He was speaking at a meeting of the country’s ruling Communist Party on the future governance of the region. China invaded Tibet in 1950 and regards it as an integral part of China – despite extensive sympathy across the world for the mountain territory and its culturally distinct people.
Xi said that the people of the region needed to be educated about ‘splittism’ and to use the education system to ‘plant the seeds of loving China in the depths of the hearts of every youth’.
Tibetan Buddhism, he added, needed to adapt to socialism and to Chinese conditions.
China’s record in Tibet has been a source of tension with the United States. In July, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated that the county would deny visas to officials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet and blocking diplomats access to the territory.
[Picture: Linus Mimietz on Unsplash]