Local committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference plays key role in autonomous region's history

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is a patriotic united front organization of the Chinese people, serving as a key mechanism for multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and a major manifestation of socialist democracy.

In September 1949, the first plenary session of the CPPCC was held in Beijing, marking the founding of this important organization in China.

The Xizang Committee of the CPPCC was founded on Dec 20, 1959, following the peaceful liberation and alongside democratic reform in this autonomous region in Southwest China.

The establishment of the CPPCC Xizang Committee also responded to the development of the local patriotic united front and the local people's aspiration to become the masters of the society and their own destiny.

The CPPCC is a major form for promoting socialist democracy in China's political life, an important component of the country's governance system, and a distinctively Chinese institutional arrangement. The two main purposes of the CPPCC are to pursue unity and democracy. This is also the case of the Xizang Committee of the CPPCC.

Over the past 65 years, under the leadership of the CPC, the CPPCC Xizang Committee has been engaged in all the important undertakings in Xizang, including the democratic reform, the establishment of the Xizang autonomous region, the reform and opening-up initiatives since the late 1970s, and the construction of socialist modernization.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPPCC Xizang Committee has upheld the principle of the organic integration of the CPC leadership, the united front and consultative democracy to implement the central authorities' strategies in governing Xizang.

Through fulfilling their missions of political consultation, democratic supervision and participation in discussing and handling State affairs, the CPPCC Xizang Committee has played an important role in and made its due contribution to creating a chapter of modernization with Chinese characteristics.

In the Xizang autonomous region, the CPPCC members at various levels adhere to the principle that stable growth, democracy and unity in the autonomous region is paramount in local governance. Therefore, they have devoted much energy to safeguarding rule of law and strengthening ethnic and cultural unity.

They realize that handling civil, cultural and religious affairs in accordance with the rule of law is among the important missions to safeguard the harmonious development of Xizang. For this purpose, the CPPCC members in Xizang have been communicating and networking with people from all walks of life, especially in religious circles and the community of returned compatriots, aiming to gather consensus for harmony among religions and various ethnic cultures.

Networking with people from all walks of life is an important area where CPPCC members exercise their duty in political consultation, which aims to get people informed of administrative affairs and gather feedback relating to major policies proposed by the central and local governments, and matters of importance concerning political, economic, cultural and social affairs.

Discussing and handling State affairs means to organize CPPCC members of various parties, people's organizations, peoples of various ethnic minorities and other social groups to take part in the country's political, economic, cultural and social activities in whatever way they think fit.

In this area of exercising duty, Xizang's CPPCC member have carried out numerous field research tours, aiming to hear the requirements of local people and businesses, study local conditions relating to socioeconomic development, and produce proposals to decision-makers.

In the field of economic development, Xizang's CPPCC members have made extensive tours of the autonomous region, studying local conditions in economic development, the business environment, livelihoods, culture and environmental protection, resulting a number of proposals submitted to the local and central governments, with some of the proposals incorporated in national and local development strategies.

The proposals put forward over the recent years — like developing the clean energy industry into a local economic pillar and advocating the construction of a greater Shangri-La eco-tourism zone in Xizang and its neighboring regions — have been confirmed and adopted by national administrations including the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The Law on Ecological Protection of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau took effect on Sept 1, 2023. Marking the nation's recent effort in building Xizang and its neighboring regions into a hub of China's ecological civilization, the law also incorporated the wisdom of the CPPCC Xizang Committee members. After extensive research tours of Xizang, the members proposed stricter protective measures of Xizang's rivers, lakes, mountains, grassland and forests and called for a better legislative framework for the protection of nature reserves like the Qomolangma Mountain National Park and Changtang National Nature Reserve. The proposals were included in this specific law for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Over the years, CPPCC Xizang members' proposals have covered almost every aspect of people's livelihoods, including employment, education, healthcare, housing, elder care and living environment improvement, addressing the pressing concerns of the public.

Exercising democratic supervision is another important duty of CPPCC members. The CPPCC Xizang Committee recently released a new set of implementation measures for enhancing and improving democratic supervision.

Under this new guideline, supervision over the implementation of laws, regulations and major policies, and over the work of government agencies, are carried out in a more regular and effective manner.