A new report by Human Rights Watch argues that the compulsory use of Chinese as the primary language in schools in Tibet raises “serious concerns under international human rights law”.
Detailing the effects of the “Children’s Speech Harmonisation Plan” enacted five years ago, as well as more recent updates to the National Common Language Law, the organisation argues that the measures are marginalising Tibetan identity to the point of erasure.
Both politically and legally, “China is steadily narrowing the space for minority autonomy in education, language and religion”, said The Diplomat. In December last year the National People’s Congress revised the National Common Language Law. It now requires Mandarin to be the “fundamental teaching language” and mandates standardised textbooks throughout the education system. The codification of assimilation policies “marks a new phase” in Beijing’s strategy: it seeks “not merely to manage ethnic diversity, but to fundamentally reshape it”, added The Diplomat.
Videos from Tibet posted on social media have shown young children “not even able to say their names in Tibetan, pronouncing them as if they were Chinese”, said Kris Cheng in The Guardian. Children who have been brought up speaking Tibetan stop speaking it within a year of beginning school.
During the early years of Communist Party rule China “espoused a certain notion of pluralism for non-Han people”, but the space for tolerance has “narrowed”, said Joe Leahy in the Financial Times. The Chinese state now sees minority languages as “potential threats” to Xi’s “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. Viewed more broadly, China’s current policies in Tibet represent “more than a shift in language education”, they reflect a “structural transformation” in how China perceives ethnic minorities, according to The Diplomat. |
