The Qinghai Tibet Plateau is one of the special geographical territories in western China.Whether population,resources,environment and economy are mutually coordinated is highly responsible for the sustainable and healthy development either in the Plateau or in western China or even all over China. This article briefly analyses the concept of sustainable development and its significance and considers that the sustainable development model is an inevitable choice both in reality and for the future of the Plateau. The quantitative analysis based on the intermodulation relationships between population,resources,environment and economy of the Plateau,leads to the conclusion that rapid population growth and its lower quality constitutes the most fundamental barrier to the sustainable development of the Plateau;the rich endowed resources but increasing pressure from population growth are the potential menace to restrict the sustainable development of the Plateau;the dismatch between population,resources and economy and inadequate carrying capacity constitute the great burden of the Plateau;irrational resources exploitation severely threatens the vulnerable eco environmet in the Plateau,which is an incubative crisis of the Plateau.Finally,the article puts forward some essential measures for the realization of sustainable deve lopment of the Plateau such as moderately controlling population growth,rationally utilizing natural resources,optimizing economic structures,actively protecting ecology and environment of the Plateau.