Economy & Environment |
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The Gormo-Lhasa railway is part of China's 'Western Development Strategy', which is marginalising Tibetans in key areas of political and economic life. The railway facilitates the ever increasing numbers of Han Chinese travelling and migrating to Tibet; it eases China’s extraction of Tibet’s vast mineral resources and it allows China more effectively to militarise the Tibetan Plateau. Coupled with the impact of tourism and the preference of Chinese speakers in growing sectors, this strategy is changing the social makeup of Tibet.
Read more about who benefits from economic developments in Tibet in this BBC article from 2010
 In 2006, the Chinese government opened the Gormo-Lhasa Railway, linking Tibet by rail with the main Chinese rail network. |  The plundering of Tibet’s vast natural resources without the free, prior and informed consent of the Tibetan people is having a marked effect. |
 The newly-opened railway has unleashed a huge increase in tourism into Tibet as the country is flooded with visitors. |  The economy of the TAR has boomed recently. Tibetans, however, have been largely excluded from this boom. |