Xi touts unity and development on surprise Tibet visit

TIBET, Aug 21 (BBC): President Xi Jinping urged unity on a surprise visit to Tibet, appearing before 20,000 people to mark 60 years since China created the autonomous region after annexing it.

In what is only his second presidential visit to the tightly-controlled region, Xi praised the local government for "engaging in a thorough struggle against separatism" - a reference to decades-old Tibetan resistance to Beijing.

The visit to Lhasa, which sits at an altitude that could pose health problems for the 72-year-old, suggests a desire to stamp his authority over the region.

His published comments did not mention the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been living in exile in India since he fled in 1959.

"To govern, stabilise and develop Tibet, the first thing is to maintain political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony," Xi said, according to an official summary of his speech.

His visit on Wednesday comes just two months after the Dalai Lama announced that his office, not China, would choose his successor. China's leaders, however, claim that only they have the power to oversee that decision.

The 90-year-old has always advocated a "middle way" to resolve the status of Tibet - genuine self-rule within China - but Beijing regards him as a separatist.

China has long maintained that Tibetans are free to practice their faith, but that faith is also the source of a centuries-old identity which human rights groups say Beijing is slowly eroding.