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Xi arriving in Tibet (photo from 2011)
Photo: picture alliance / Photoshot
China's President Xi Jinping has traveled to the troubled region of Tibet as a surprise.
The state television broadcaster CCTV showed a crowd of people with Chinese flags and traditional Tibetan clothing greeting him as he exited his plane at Nyingchi Airport.
According to the information, the head of state arrived in the troubled region on Wednesday without this being officially announced.
It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Tibet in more than three decades.
President Jian Zemin was last there in 1990.
Xi has already made two official trips to the troubled region: in 1998 as party leader of Fujian Province and then in 2011 as vice president.
Tibet has had strained relations with China for centuries.
After a period of independence, Beijing had repeatedly taken control of the mountain region.
In 1951, the People's Republic occupied the area and still controls the autonomous region and the neighboring provinces, in which many Tibetans also live, with a hard hand.
In 1959 there was an uprising, which was violently suppressed.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of the Tibetans, then fled to India and founded the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala.
Many Tibetans in exile accuse the Chinese government of forcibly suppressing their culture and religion.
The last time there was unrest in the region in 2008, with many deaths.
Beijing claims to have "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951 and then brought infrastructure and education to the underdeveloped region.
Today, China invests enormous sums in Tibet's economic development.
In September 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) received the spiritual and religious leader of the Tibetans in Berlin for the first time - the move had led to resentment in diplomatic relations with Beijing.
as / AFP