By Liu Botong, People’s Daily

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of southwest China’s Xizang autonomous region. Wang Junzheng, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xizang Autonomous Regional Committee, and Gama Cedain, deputy secretary of the CPC Xizang Autonomous Regional Committee and chairman of the People’s Government of the region, introduced the region’s remarkable economic and social development achievements at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on Aug. 5.

In 2024, the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 276.5 billion yuan ($38.52 billion), 155 times that of 1965 in constant prices. While it took the region 50 years to achieve its first 100 billion yuan in GDP, the second 100 billion yuan milestone was reached in just six years, Wang said.

Since 2021, sustained efforts have further expanded Xizang’s economy while improving the quality and efficiency of growth. Modern industries, including clean energy, cultural tourism and plateau light industry, are laying the foundation for a modern industrial system. The region’s key economic indicators have ranked among the highest growth rates in the country for several consecutive years, with its regional GDP projected to surpass 300 billion yuan this year, reaching the third 100 billion yuan milestone.

Xizang’s infrastructure has also significantly improved. By the end of 2024, the total operational road length and the railway length in the region had reached 124,900 kilometers and 1,359 kilometers, respectively, and its domestic and international air routes reached 183. Four major power grids had been put into use, with the main grid now covering all counties, districts, and cities in the region.

These developments have substantially resolved historical infrastructure constraints, providing significant momentum for high-quality regional development, Wang noted.

Xizang boasts a long history and a splendid culture, alongside unique natural landscapes and rich cultural resources. It is an important center for preserving the distinctive culture of the Chinese nation and a major global tourism destination, enjoying exceptional advantages in developing the cultural tourism industry, which has experienced robust growth in recent years.

In 2024, the total output value of Xizang’s cultural industry increased by 23.8 percent, according to Gama Cedain. The region received 63.89 million domestic and international visitors, marking a 15.8 percent year-on-year increase. Notably, the number of inbound tourists skyrocketed by 188.2 percent. In the first half of this year, Xizang welcomed over 32.18 million visitors, representing an 11.7 percent increase year on year.

Meanwhile, living standards have improved dramatically. In 2024, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Xizang reached 55,444 yuan, 121 times that of 1965. The per capita disposable income of rural residents hit 21,578 yuan, 199 times that of 1965.

Xizang has achieved a comprehensive victory over poverty and eliminated absolute poverty. Education has been made a top priority, with the region leading the nation in providing a 15-year publicly funded education program from kindergarten to senior high school.

A comprehensive public healthcare system offers free health checkups for all farmers and herders, contributing to a regional life expectancy of 72.5 years. Accelerated urbanization has transformed settlements into modern towns.

Over the 60 years since the establishment of the autonomous region – particularly in the past five years – Xizang has vigorously advanced various livelihood projects and programs. People of all ethnic groups have witnessed transformative changes in their daily lives, such as shifting from carrying water in buckets to enjoying running water, from oil lamps to electric lighting, from dirt roads to paved highways, and from yurts to modern housing, according to Gama Cedain.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the state and the autonomous region plan to allocate 24.65 billion yuan to support 28 categories of regional social development projects. As of now, 23.678 billion yuan has already been invested in these projects.

A wide range of livelihood initiatives have been effectively implemented, including centralized heating and oxygen supply in high-altitude areas, the resolution of seasonal water shortages in agricultural and pastoral zones, enhanced reliability of power supply, and comprehensive coverage of fiber-optic broadband and 4G networks.

Located on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, known as the “roof of the world” and “Asia’s water tower,” Xizang serves as a vital ecological security barrier for China. How can the region safeguard the plateau’s unique ecological environment while preserving its biodiversity and natural wonders?

Xizang has adopted the strictest ecological protection system in accordance with law. It has firmly upheld a policy of rejecting the approval or introduction of projects and enterprises that are high in energy consumption and emissions but low in efficiency, strictly prohibiting any pollution-prone projects on the plateau. The region has actively promoted national park construction and advanced the afforestation project in the northern and southern mountains of Lhasa, the regional capital. Ecological conservation red line zones have been drawn for more than 50 percent of the region’s land area, with protected areas of all types and levels now accounting for 37.95 percent of its land area.

Low-carbon development has also been vigorously pursued. In 2024, over 99 percent of electricity in Xizang was generated from clean energy, the highest of all regions in China. Non-fossil energy consumption in the region exceeded 55 percent of total energy use, placing it among the top in the country in green energy.

Today, Xizang’s natural environment is among the best preserved in the world. “We will firmly uphold the principle that ‘lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets and so are ice and snow,’ persistently serving as guardians to make the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau an ecological treasure shared by mankind and contributing more to building a shared future for all life on Earth,” Wang said.

By Huan Yuping, People’s Daily

Trust serves as the cornerstone of international cooperation, demanding sustained stewardship from the international community. Decades of mutual trust and cooperation among nations propelled unprecedented economic globalization and robust global growth. Yet today, trust erosion among major countries has engendered fragility in international relations and protracted sluggishness in economic recovery. This trust deficit now critically undermines world peace and development.

The collapse of confidence among major countries is fracturing the foundation of global trust, creating widespread uncertainty and deepening distrust. Certain countries, driven by hegemonic ambitions, have embraced extreme populism, strategic adventurism, and coercive unilateralism, attempting to reshape the international order through maximum pressure tactics. 

By capriciously abandoning international institutions and treaties, they compromise the sanctity of the rules-based governance. They impose arbitrary tariffs and unilateral sanctions, and exert long-arm jurisdiction, leading to global trade fragmentation. Their regressive decoupling policies disrupt supply chains, building exclusionary “small yards with high fences.”

As Foreign Affairs notes, great-power competition demands persuasion, not coercion. When dominant powers instrumentalize international commitments as bargaining chips and treat global markets as their exclusive domain, they destabilize the international order, heighten market volatility, and deepen security anxieties.

Amid profound changes in the international landscape, the very concept of security has been weaponized by certain nations as a tool for geopolitical rivalry. Pursuing illusory “absolute security,” these countries have become overly defensive. Anxious about losing their dominance over the global order, they distort their risk awareness, misinterpreting interdependence as vulnerability.

Traditional security frameworks have been improperly expanded to encompass economic, trade and cultural, and scientific and technological spheres – areas historically governed by cooperation, not confrontation. By rebranding routine exchanges as “national security threats,” these nations subordinate vital global interactions to political objectives.

This abuse of the security concept triggers destabilizing cycles: strategic distrust deepens, geopolitical rivalries intensify, supply chains become tactical weapons, and military spending escalates unsustainably. Normal international engagement suffers, yielding universal losses.

As the world evolves from a single-civilization hegemony toward a multipolar order, some countries remain entrenched in the Cold War mentality. Obsessed with maintaining dominance, they stoke hostility and escalate development competition into all-out systemic confrontation. Through the relentless promotion of “threat theories” and “trap narratives,” they worsen divisions and inflame confrontations.

By building exclusive, small circles and so-called “sanctions coalitions,” these countries seek to suppress other nations’ development while propping up declining alliance systems. This deliberate creation of “civilizational superiority” and “clash of civilizations,” which weaponizes ideology to fracture the moral values of humanity, not only reveals their anxiety in the face of historical trends but also undermines the very foundation of trust that holds human society together.

Chinese President Xi Jinping insightfully noted that trust is the best adhesive in international relations. Transformation of a scale not seen in a century is accelerating across the world, and human society has once again come to a critical crossroads. The imperative now is to engage in mutual consultation, demonstrate mutual understanding, resolve the trust deficit, and rebuild global trust. The international community should coordinate efforts across four dimensions:

First, restoring trust among major countries. Major countries should lead by example, honor commitments, uphold principles, and place justice above narrow self-interest. They must acknowledge and respect the other’s core interests and major concerns, avoid crossing red lines, prevent strategic misjudgments, and ensure that competition remains manageable and does not escalate into conflict.

Second, promoting shared development. Humanity’s common interests should be recognized as the bedrock of global trust. The outdated zero-sum mentality must be completely discarded in favor of high-standard and mutually beneficial cooperation. By expanding shared interests, the international community can create an open, more inclusive global economy, where development outcomes serve as the most solid foundation for mutual trust.

Third, empowering multilateralism. The purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter must be upheld. At the same time, multilateral institutions must be reformed to enhance their representation, transparency, and effectiveness. Priority should be placed on delivering quantifiable and verifiable early gains in urgent areas such as climate change, public health, and artificial intelligence. Concrete, verifiable achievements in these domains will help reinforce the credibility and relevance of multilateralism.

Fourth, encouraging mutual learning among civilizations. Trust should be nurtured through cultural understanding and people-to-people connections. Exchanges in education, science and technology, culture, and youth should be deepened to transcend ideological divides, which will lay the most resilient foundation for enhancing global trust.

China has always been a consistent advocate and practitioner in fostering solidarity and mutual trust within the international community. Guided by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has championed true multilateralism and proposed the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, offering concrete solutions to addressing the global trust deficit.

China continues to pursue high-quality development and high-level opening up, champion universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and work to build an open world economy.

Through the green Belt and Road Initiative, China has provided and mobilized more than 177 billion yuan ($24.65 billion) of financial support to bolster climate initiatives in other developing countries. By October 2024, China had signed 53 MoUs on South-South cooperation addressing climate change with 42 developing countries.

China has introduced unilateral visa-free entry and mutual visa exemption agreements with 75 countries and brought the number of countries eligible for visa-free transit to 55, which is expected to facilitate over 10 million person-times of people-to-people exchanges annually.

These actions demonstrate that China’s commitment to global trust is not limited to rhetoric. It actively delivers tangible benefits, embodying a philosophy of mutual success: helping others to succeed is the surest path to achieving success oneself.

No one should be a bystander in rebuilding global trust. Governments, international organizations, civil society, and individual citizens share the obligation to replace prejudice with reason and dissolve suspicion with goodwill. Through sincere cooperation and shared resolve, humanity can overcome turbulence and guide our common future toward peace, stability, and sustainable prosperity.

By Qiang Xiaoyun

Since its founding in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has evolved into a comprehensive regional organization with the world’s largest population, the broadest geographical coverage, and enormous potential, playing an increasingly constructive role in international affairs.

Since taking over the rotating presidency of the SCO in July 2024, China has hosted more than 100 events in multiple fields as SCO chair, promoting unity, mutual trust, mutual learning, and win-win cooperation among member states.

The SCO has long prioritized women’s development as a key area of cooperation. Through a range of practical steps, the organization has promoted gender equality, safeguarded women’s rights, and empowered women’s contributions to national and social progress. These efforts have significantly enhanced women’s participation in the development of SCO countries.

During the SCO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would host the SCO Forum on Women. Since 2018, five sessions of the forum have been successfully held, creating a vital platform for dialogue and cooperation.

Recent initiatives such as the SCO Women Leaders Forum and the “Women’s Perspective on the SCO” academic conference have showcased fresh highlights in women-centered people-to-people and cultural exchanges within the SCO framework. These efforts continue to inject greater women’s strength into building a closer SCO community with a shared future.

An increasing number of female experts and scholars are engaged in SCO-related research, contributing valuable insights with a pragmatic and inclusive approach. Amid rising regional and global uncertainties, women across the SCO family are actively promoting cooperation and working to find common ground among member states. As the SCO family continues to expand, female scholars and professionals have consistently advocated openness and inclusiveness, contributing wisdom to the organization’s evolution.

People-to-people exchanges remain foundational to strengthening public support for the SCO. As a founding member, China has always placed great importance on such exchanges and supported a wide range of activities, especially those involving women and youth.

In recent years, China has successfully hosted events such as the SCO Art Festival, the SCO Media and Think Tank Summit, and the SCO Countries Vocational Skills Contest, remaining committed to deepening people-to-people and cultural ties among member states.

As the current rotating chair, China is taking pragmatic and efficient steps to promote infrastructure development (“hard connectivity”) and policy/cultural alignment (“soft connectivity”) while deepening mutual understanding among member states. Recent events such as the SCO Political Parties Forum and the Media Cooperation Forum of SCO Countries have further built consensus for deeper regional cooperation, delivering concrete benefits across the SCO region and beyond.

Going forward, the SCO should continue enhancing communication and mutual learning, strengthening people-to-people ties, and expanding cooperation in areas such as education, women’s development, culture, think tanks, media, and tourism. By working together, member states can inject strong momentum into building a closer SCO community with a shared future and a brighter future for Eurasia.

(Qiang Xiaoyun is a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies under the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in Shanghai)