The Dalai Lama's retirement will have little effect on the Tibet Autonomous Region, said the regional government's top official on May 19, 2011 on a press conference in Beijing.

"Whether he retires or not, the Dalai Lama is not allowed to sabotage the happy lives of Tibetans," said Padma Choling, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Choling said his government is the only legal government representing Tibetans and no countries in the world recognizes Dalai's "government-in-exile."

"You said the Dalai Lama has picked a successor. But what he is going to succeed, and from whom?" Choling said at the press conference.

"I am the eighth chairman of the Tibet autonomous region, the only legitimate government elected by Tibetans since 1965," he added.

In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama and his supporters staged an armed rebellion but failed. He then fled to India and created the self-declared "Tibetan government-in-exile."

The door is open for the 14th Dalai Lama if he wants to return to China, Choling said.

The central government has not changed its stance on this issue. If talks with the Dalai Lama are held, the central government will only talk about the future of the Dalai Lama and the people around him. The Chinese government will not talk with the "exile government."

In 1951, the representatives of Tibet local government signed the 17-Article Agreement with the central government in Beijing. The region's feudal serf system, which was ruled by a conjoined political and religious authority with the Dalai Lama at its core, was abolished years later.

Over the past 60 years, the regional GDP has grown about 112 times from only 129 million yuan ($20 million) to nearly 51 billion yuan.

Since 1952, the central government provided 300 billion yuan in financial subsidies to Tibet with an annual increase of more than 22 percent.

The economic development of Tibet is shared by people from all ethnic groups, with Tibetans making up about 90 percent of the population.