A Chinese expert on Saturday shared his perspective on the development efforts outlined in a white paper about southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, released the day before.
The document, titled "Human Rights in Xizang in the New Era," was released by the State Council Information Office at a press conference held in Lhasa, capital city of Xizang.
"If you go to the Tibetan plateau, you will see this is basically a Sahara up on the hill, up on the cloud. Average altitude is more than 6,000 kilometers above the sea level, and also you see very little rain drop, very barren land. So up on this kind of field, we need to still support more than seven million of population. And how we can do that, I think targeted poverty alleviation is absolutely a phenomenal campaign, and a war waged against the poverty, they help local people to get off the trap of this grinding, desperate situation and get into the prosperity right now. What we're doing is that we try to look into the local realities, and develop a very specific method to help them," said Qu Qiang, a research fellow with the Belt and Road Research Center at Minzu University of China.
He said that Xizang has been enhancing the development of industries including tourism and yak farming, with agricultural efforts being supported through greenhouses and technologies like drip irrigation.
"We have been investing zillions of yuan, trying to pull through the Qingzang high-speed railway, all kinds of highway networks and aero and space networks, full coverage of Wi-Fi and the Internet and the telecommunication networks, so that local people can get access to the outside information, to get access to outside resources and market network. So through all this effort, you will find out, actually, in the past 20 years, their GDP per capita actually has been raised by 10 times. If you compare the number from 2024 to 1949 when Xizang Autonomous Region was just established, well, the average GDP per capita was just 50 U.S. dollars, but right now we're looking at 5,000 U.S. dollars per capita, because at that time, more than 90 percent of the population still belonged to the slavery system. So this is actually a very phenomenal change," said Qu.
Expert highlights targeted poverty alleviation, economic growth in Xizang's development
Expert highlights targeted poverty alleviation, economic growth in Xizang's development
Los Angeles is grappling with rising costs and delays in its wildfire recovery process, as tariffs on construction materials imposed during the Trump administration compound the challenges.
The devastating wildfires recently destroyed over 17,000 homes and businesses, leaving communities urgently pushing forward with reconstruction.
The Trump administration has recently rolled out new tariffs on a wide range of construction materials, including steel and aluminum, from the main trading partners of the United States, such as Canada, Mexico, and China. This has significantly driven up costs, further complicating the recovery efforts
"As the city and county of Los Angeles move aggressively to rebuild the wildfire areas in Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and up in Altadena, to build those houses, we need softwood lumber, aluminum, and steel from Canada," said Gene Soroka, executive director of Port of Los Angeles.
While the tariffs aim to boost domestic production, the transition will take time. In the interim, the shortage of materials is creating ripple effects across the construction sector.
"We are still handling a lot of imported steel, despite the tariffs because there's not enough American manufacturing of steel right now. So, one of the unintended consequences that this has done the wrong way is you don't have enough steel. That impacts construction, that impacts economic growth across the board," said Weston Labar, chief strategy office of Waterfront Logistics.
According to the Associated General Contractors of America, housing costs could skyrocket by almost 50 percent, widening the gap between insurance payouts and actual rebuilding expenses. It may force many homeowners to delay or even abandon their reconstruction plans, prolonging the housing shortage in Los Angeles.
Tariffs are also driving up prices for other products, impacting recovery efforts.
"We need appliances from Mexico, furniture from China, and all of those prices are going up, whether anticipatory, or real as these imports are coming across our port complex. So, we've got to have some pretty detailed discussions about this because families who want to rebuild, businesses who want to get back into the office are going to be impacted by these tariffs one way or another," said Soroka.
As Los Angeles strives to recover, the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs presents a formidable obstacle.
Tariffs add strain to Los Angeles wildfire recovery efforts
