BEIJING: Thirty delegates from Tibet Autonomous Region attended the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing from October 16 to 22. They represented more than 400,000 Party members in the region.
“It’s my great honor to be elected as a delegate,” Sherlok Drolma, a former world champion wrestler from the Tibetan ethnic group, told Beijing Review on September 30. “I will fulfill my role to the best of my ability.”
The 20th CPC National Congress had 2,296 elected delegates representing more than 96 million CPC members and over 4.9 million primary-level Party organizations. Women accounted for 27 percent of the total, an increase of 2.8 percentage points compared with the 19th CPC National Congress five years ago, an official of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said on September 26. Moreover, 264 delegates came from 40 ethnic minority groups.
The electoral process observed strict procedures, from nomination and candidate selection to organizational review and election, Sherlok Drolma said, adding that the CPC committee of the autonomous region provided training sessions in the lead-up to the congress to help those elected better understand their rights and duties.
The first-ever world champion from Tibet expressed her excitement about being in Beijing, a city where she trained, studied and lived for nearly 12 years.
Sherlok Drolma won gold in the Women’s Freestyle 67 kg at the 2011 Wrestling World Championships in Türkiye. She went on to win many titles around the world, competing in the 67- or 63-kg weight divisions.
“It’s because of the CPC that I, the daughter of a herdsman, could become a world champion,” Sherlok Drolma said. Today, people in Tibet, men and women alike, all have equal opportunities to succeed in life, she explained.
Born into a herdsman’s family in Nyingchi in 1987, Sherlok Drolma was recruited by the region’s sports school and enrolled in its wrestling training course in 2001—when in middle school. Her future had taken shape at that point.
“Without the CPC, there would be no happy lives in the region,” Sherlok Drolma added. She credited the convenience of transportation, such as highways and trains, as well as the provision of universal access to education and medical services in every single village, as “the Party’s doing.”
Yasha echoed Sherlok Drolma’s opinions. Coming from Nanyi Village in Nanyi Lhoba Autonomous Township of Nyingchi City, Yasha is the only Lhoba delegate to the congress.
Lhoba is one of the least populous among all of China’s 56 ethnic groups; its roughly 4,200 people mainly reside in southeast Tibet. The Lhobas have their own language, but no script.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing review news exchange item
