(with Japneet Kaur and Devendra Kumar), ‘Beyond the Military Prism: China’s Development Objectives in Xiaokang Villages in Tibet Autonomous Region’, Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Occasional Paper, No. 4, February 2025.

Abstract

In 2017, China unveiled a policy to develop more than 600 bianjing xiaokang cun, or ‘moderately well-off border villages’, in 21 border counties in the Tibet Autonomous Region. This study examines how the policy is being implemented in 44 villages in four border counties in Ngari prefecture and in Droma county in Shigatse City using qualitative data about development policies, political activities, and geographical locations of the villages. While acknowledging the strategic significance of these villages for China’s military objectives, including territorial claim-making, the study urges scholars and policymakers to pay attention to broader and longer-term objectives of the policy, such as populating border areas, Party-building, and achieving political and administrative control at the grassroots. Further, we argue that the policy has important implications for understanding how the Chinese state funds and implements development policies in its vast borderlands.

Keywords: Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), xiaokang villages, dual-use infrastructure, economic development, poverty alleviation, Tibet policy, India-China relations.