Chinese officials have remained quiet and did not announce his visit until Friday.
President Xi Jinping arrived in Nyingchi, a city in Tibet, a province under Beijing's rule for decades, on Wednesday.
The Tibetan question seems to be fading in recent years as Beijing strengthens its grip on the "roof of the world" and its inhabitants.
The proliferation of controversies raised by the appetite of the Chinese ogre has also had the effect of relegating Tibet to the background of international geopolitical concerns.
But this visit by China's number one - the first trip by a Chinese president in 31 years - is symbolic in more ways than one. Xi had already come to the capital, Lhasa, as vice president in 2011. He returned this time to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the 17-point agreement that marked the end of independence.
Xi's journey during these two days was carefully thought out, as Nadège Rolland, researcher on political and security issues in Asia-Pacific at the National Bureau of Asian Research, asserts.
“
Xi, who wants to make Tibet an impenetrable fortress, arrived in the locality of Nyingchi, and not in Lhasa.
He began by inspecting Brahmaputra where the construction of a dam is planned.
He then visited a newly opened and strategically important railway line connecting Sichuan-Tibet
.
"
India on the agenda
Xi's visit was not only for Tibetans. “
This is a signal sent directly to Delhi,”
adds the specialist. The town of Nyingchi, with which his journey began, is in fact close to the border with Indian Arunachal Pradesh. However, a northern part of this Indian region is claimed by China as part of Tibet. Fighting takes place sporadically on this highest battlefield in the world.
The Chinese government has repeatedly recalled the strategic importance of a Tibet sharing 3,500 km of border with India.
Xi wants to consolidate the defenses of this extremely wealthy region.
"
It is not by chance that Xi was surrounded by
Zhang Youxia,
the vice-president of the military commission and Liu He, responsible for the economic development of China
", explains Nadège Rolland.
China wishes to strengthen its presence in Tibet for geopolitical but also economic reasons.
"
The transport device can be used for the deployment of strategic military equipment as well as for the exploitation of lithium, copper and silver mines
", analyzes the tibetologist Katia Buffetrille.
Political re-education
This trip, totally supervised by the propaganda service, "
was warmly welcomed by the inhabitants and local officials of various ethnic groups,
" relayed the official Xinhua news agency. The President was greeted in Lhasa by a crowd waving Chinese flags. "
As long as we follow the Communist Party, as long as we adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we can surely achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,
" he told the people.
The "rejuvenation" referred to by Xi involves the increasingly brutal assimilation of the local population into Chinese culture since coming to power. Like what is practiced in Xinjiang, the sinization policy is spreading ever more deeply in Tibet. “
We clearly cannot speak of genocide here, but Tibet is increasingly disappearing from the region. As we can see, the government wants to sinise religion and culture. There is political re-education on all levels. We keep the folklore part but we remove all the cultural roots
”, deplores Katia Buffetrille.
Everywhere, portraits of the new Chinese emperor replace ancient Tibetan relics. The great deculturation by forced march of the population also involves the prohibition of the use of minority languages. “
We lock up protesters and dissidents and impose Han Chinese culture in education. The only thing that differs with the situation of the Uyghurs is that there is no mass confinement
”specifies Nadège Rolland. The current secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, had also cut his teeth in Tibet before his replacement in 2016.
The communication around this historic visit wishes to demonstrate only one thing: Tibet has fallen into line and has become a Chinese region like any other. What Hong Kong and Taiwan now fear.