Near Arunachal, Xi Jinping vows to boost border infra building

His visit to Tibet is the first by a Chinese president since 1990

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a rare visit to Nyingchi, a strategically located border town close to Arunachal Pradesh, during his first visit to the politically sensitive region of Tibet where he underlined the need for “lasting stability” and “high-quality development” for the plateau region.

Xi was in Tibet from Wednesday but his important visit was kept under wraps by China's official media until the end of the trip on Friday due to the sensitivities of the trip.

During his visit, the Chinese president pledged to bolster construction along Tibet’s Himalayan frontier and also reaffirmed Beijing’s control. The last sitting Chinese President to officially visit Tibet was Jiang Zemin in 1990.

Xi called on ethnic Tibetans and other minority groups Friday to help defend the country in a visit timed to mark the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party’s control over the area, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The trip, which included a stop at Nyingchi — a military hub, comes as tensions simmer along the contested border with India, amid claims by both sides of aggressive troop movements and infrastructure building.

Robert Barnett, a British academic who has written about Tibet, said Xi’s trip “suggests that he places the border struggle with India close to the very top of China’s national agenda.”