Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region will inject an extra 2 billion yuan (about US$280 million) this year to finance 10 new welfare programmes, the regional government said. The initiatives focus on income support, childcare subsidies, elderly-care services, expanded medical insurance for newborns and winter heating allowances for low-income households. They supplement a 14.8 billion-yuan earmark already set aside for 28 ongoing social projects in 2025. Seven of the new measures will apply to all residents, while three target vulnerable groups and contributors to regional development. The announcement underscores Xizang’s continued pivot toward social spending: from 2021 to 2024, more than 80 per cent of its annual fiscal outlays—totaling 860.1 billion yuan—went to public welfare, according to official figures. President Xi Jinping, meeting representatives from the high-altitude region on Wednesday, urged authorities to build a “modern socialist new Xizang” that is united, prosperous and harmonious. His remarks signal top-level support for the expanded social-safety agenda, which Beijing views as integral to advancing what it calls Chinese modernization in the border region.