Local residents attend a celebration event for the upcoming Serfs Emancipation Day in Kesum Village of Nedong County in Shannan Prefecture, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, March 26, 2010, photo from Xinhua.

The democratic reform in Tibet aimed at emancipating serfs 51 years ago under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is lofty and righteous, said Padma Choling, chairman of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Regional Government, Saturday.

Tibetans have achieved remarkable development since 1959. No reactionary force could block the powerful current of Tibet's progress, he said while delivering a speech via TV on the eve of Serfs Emancipation Day.

China designated March 28 as an annual Serfs Emancipation Day last year to mark the date on which about one million serfs in the region, accounting for more than 90 percent of the Tibetan population, were freed in 1959.

The newly-elected chairman said the period of feudal serfdom in old Tibet was darker, more cruel, barbarous and backward than the Middle Ages in Europe. Serf owners who made up five percent of the Tibetan population occupied all the farming land and most of the livestock while the one million with nearly nothing struggled in the "hell on earth."

"The Tibetans cherish the hard-won happy and stable life and will steadfastly safeguard social stability, ethic unity and national unification. Any attempt to separate Tibet from China is doomed to failure."

Only socialism can save Tibet and guarantee its development, he said citing that the regional gross domestic product reached 44.1 billion yuan (6.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009, up 12.4 percent against 2008 and more than 65 times of that in 1959. The net income per capita of farmers and herdsmen saw a year-on-year growth of 11.2 percent to reach 3,532 yuan last year, he said.

The life-span of Tibetans increased from 35.5 years in 1951 to 67 years in 2008, according to a white paper on China's ethnic policy released last year by the State Council Information Office.

The paper said the central budget allocated 201.9 billion yuan of fiscal assistance to Tibet from 1959 to 2008, with an annual increase of nearly 12 percent.

Fine traditional culture has been inherited and developed. The preservation of cultural relics is going well. Tibetan opera and the Tibetan epic Gesar have been listed as the world's intangible cultural heritage, the official said.

The policy of guaranteeing the freedom of religious belief is fully implemented and the ecological environment of the plateau is under sound protection, he said.

"Those who have experienced severe winter know the warmth of the sun best. No one could more cherish the new Tibet than the one million serfs who had suffered misery in the feudal serfdom."

Padma also said the Dalai Lama clique have never stopped separatist activities and have been trying to block the development of the socialist Tibet to restore serfdom.

During a press conference in Beijing in early March, Padma Choling said the main source of instability in Tibet is the Dalai Lama, and it is also he who causes trouble for Tibet's economic development and social, economic progress.

China has made plans to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability in Tibet. By 2020 the per capita net income of farmers and herds people in Tibet should be close to the national level, according to the plan.

Tibet's capacity to provide public service and infrastructure must also be comparable to the nation's average by 2020, through more government investment and better management.