This year is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. When Xi Jinping recently met with the Panchen Lama, he said that the Party Central Committee would send a delegation to Tibet to celebrate the event. But when will this event take place, and who will lead the delegation from the central government?

The first meeting of the People’s Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region met in Lhasa on September 1, 1965, and at the closing meeting on September 9 they declared the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. From 1965 to 1983, Tibet celebrated its establishment day on September 9, including in 1975 when a delegation from the central government joined in the 10th anniversary celebrations.

In 1984, Tibet proposed to change its establishment day from September 9 to September 1, and the central government agreed. A delegation from the central government has joined celebrations of each decade anniversary in 1985, 1995, and 2005 on September 1.

This year is 2015, so will the Tibet Autonomous Region celebrate the 50th anniversary of its establishment on September 1? We currently do not know. However, according to observations, since the tradition has been followed for 30 years, except in special circumstances, it won’t be easily changed.

As for who will be the head of the central government’s delegation this time, we still do not know. When the Tibet Autonomous Region celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1975, Premier Zhou Enlai pointed out that he wanted to be the leader of the central government’s delegation into Tibet, in the end he did not make the journey because of health reasons. Eventually then vice-premier of the State Council, Hua Guofeng, became the leader of the delegation.

In 2001 and 2011 Tibet celebrated its 50th and 60th anniversaries of the peaceful liberation. Hu Jintao led the delegation for the 50th anniversary, and Xi Jinping led the delegation for the 60th anniversary. At that time they both held the positions of vice-president, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The leader of the central delegation when the Tibet Autonomous Region celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding in 2005 was Jia Qinglin, who was then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of National Committee of the CPPCC.

There was no news from the meeting between Xi Jinping and the Panchen Lama on whether someone with the rank of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee member would lead the delegation to Tibet for this year’s 50th anniversary celebration. But whether or not they will follow the same pattern as before, we’ll have to wait and see.