Preservation of Tibetan culture linked to its modern development

Should the Tibetan autonomous region open up to the outside world?

With China increasingly integrated with the world, which is itself increasingly globalized, this should not be a question. Yet the preservation of Tibetan culture including its local language is often used as an excuse by some in the West to deny Tibetans the right to economic growth and better lives.

Their desire to keep Tibetan culture preserved in aspic does a disservice to the Tibetan people, who, like their counterparts elsewhere, have the right to higher living standards that can only be obtained through local economic development. That explains why the work report the government of the Tibet autonomous region delivered to the local people's congress on Thursday makes it imperative for Tibet to open wider to the outside world.