Tibet Youth Congress (TYC) with violence as its features recently alleged overseas that more than one million Tibetans had been killed by the Chinese government in half a century from 1949 to 1989. This, however, is a sheer lie laid bare by a host of relevant facts and figures.
The population in Tibet was only about one million in 1950 and, according to the Tibet the autonomous regional bureau of statistics, Tibet's population stood at 2.8415 million in 2007, a rise of 180 percent over 1950, with Tibetans population making up 92 percent of the total population in the autonomous region. The Tibetans currently has a lifespan average of 67 years, as against 35.5 years in 1959.
Population stagnated in old Tibet
Historical records stored in the files of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Archives are stunning: A small number of local officials, aristocrats and high Lamas, who made up five percent of the population in Tibet then, owned almost all the land, pastures, mountain woods and most of the livestock. Of the 1 million people in Tibet in 1950, some 900,000 did not have roofs to shelter themselves. Of the 20,000 residents in the city proper of Lhasa, there were more than 1,000 paupers and beggars sleeping in the open all year round.
Population grew very slowly in old Tibet as commoners could not have any social security guarantee, a host of historical records once again proved. In more than two centuries before 1950, the population in Tibet stood still at about one million, and the official Tibetan census in 1953 only recorded a population of 1.14 million.
Population grows rapidly in new Tibet
Tibet autonomous region has adopted its unique family planning policy in accordance with its specific local conditions. Since 1984, the regional government has advocated and carried out the policy of two children per couple with an adequate, proper interval among Tibetan cadres, workers and staffers, and urban and rural residents and on a voluntary basis. Yet, the farmers and herders, who make up 80 percent of the population in Tibet, have not practiced family planning.
Chinese central authorities have stepped up its support to local finances in Tibet since the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951 and particularly after the democratic reform of 1959. In 2007, the proportion of its income of subsidies from the central government was highest among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country. The rapid population growth in Tibet is also ascribed to special preferential policies granted by the central and autonomous regional governments and an enormous input to improve the production and livelihoods of locals.
Based on sample surveys of latest changes in the population, the total population in Tibet reached 2.8415 million by the end of 2007, a rise of 180 percent over 1950, in which Tibetans' population rose 92 percent whereas the Han Chinese increased merely by 5 percent.
China has conducted four censuses in Tibet since its peaceful liberation in 1951, which show Tibetans population constitute 96.6 percent of the total population in Tibet, and so Tibetans remain the most populous ethnic group in the autonomous region.
Average lifespan up 31.5 years in Tibet today
To date, Tibetans has a lifespan averaging 67 years, as against 35.5 years in 1959, and the Tibet autonomous region has also been listed as one of the provinces or autonomous regions with relatively more centenarians.
All Tibetan families have their fixed shelters except for those in a few pasture areas. Comfortable housing projects launched since 2006 have enable some 114,000 households with more than 570,000 farmers and herders moving into their new homes.
Annual income of farmers and herders in Tibet has kept up an annual growth rate of 10 percent in the past three decades of reform and opening-up. The 2007 per-capita income of farmers and herders was 2,788 yuan and that of urban residents reached 11,131 yuan in 2007.
By People's Daily Online
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