The Belt and Road Initiative and Digital Tibet
文章摘要
In the past 60 years, Tibet has been flourishing in economic and social development. In 2018, the regional GDP exceeded 140 billion yuan, an increase of about 10%. In 2015, China issued Joining Hands to Build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road – Vision and Actions, which provided a rare opportunity for the development of Tibet. Tibet enjoys the advantages of ethnic, cultural tourism, and frontier trade. The Internet in Tibet is gaining momentum. The Tibet Autonomous Region strongly supports e-commerce poverty alleviation by virtue of the Internet economy. In 2018, the e-commerce trade volume of goods and services in Tibet reached 20.6 billion yuan. Express delivery volume added up to 7.258 million pieces, up 27.9% year-on-year, and exceeded the national average for the first time in nearly three years. Currently, Wechat Pay and Alipay are available to most areas in Tibet. Sixty years ago, Tibet completed the transition from serfdom to socialism. The development of the Internet will bring to fruition the second transition to Digital Tibet which is no longer the Tibet in the eyes of Westerners.The Tibet Autonomous Region, one of the five autonomous regions in China, is adjacent to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the north, Sichuan province to the east, Qinghai province to the northeast, and Yunnan province to the southeast, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal and other countries to the south, and Kashmir to the west. The land boundary is more than 4,000 kilometers with the north-south boundary of up to a bit over 900 kilometers wide and the east-west boundary of up to a bit over 2,000 kilometers long. It covers an area of 1.2022 million square kilometers, about 1/8 of the country’s territory. With an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters, Tibet, known as the Roof of the World, has jurisdiction over 6 prefecture-level cities, 1 regions, 8 municipal districts, and 66 counties. Home to over 3 million permanent residents, it is an important gateway to China’s southwest border.
Abstract
In the past 60 years, Tibet has been flourishing in economic and social development. In 2018, the regional GDP exceeded 140 billion yuan, an increase of about 10%. In 2015, China issued Joining Hands to Build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road – Vision and Actions, which provided a rare opportunity for the development of Tibet. Tibet enjoys the advantages of ethnic, cultural tourism, and frontier trade. The Internet in Tibet is gaining momentum. Currently, Wechat Pay and Alipay are available to most areas in Tibet. Sixty years ago, Tibet completed the transition from serfdom to socialism. The
development of the Internet will bring to fruition the second transition to Digital Tibet which is no longer the Tibet in the eyes of Westerners.
作者简介
Zhang Yonghe:Executive Director-General, Human Rights Research Institute, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, China