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BEIJING: Inner Mongolia authorities must “solve ethnic problems” and push the use of the Mandarin language, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, months after the region was rocked by protests over a new rule that would reduce the use of the local language. .
China’s extreme north region borders the independent nation of Mongolia, with which it shares ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties.
Tens of thousands participated in demonstrations and school boycotts last year after an edict ordered Mandarin to replace Mongolian as the language of instruction, as part of a national campaign to assimilate China’s ethnic minorities into the majority Han culture.
Rare mass demonstrations, the largest Beijing had witnessed in decades, were followed by an offensive when armored vehicles surrounded schools and police arrested dozens of protest leaders.
On Friday (March 5), Xi doubled down on integration policies.
Speaking at an annual convention of political leaders in Beijing, he said Inner Mongolia should “unswervingly promote the use of common national textbooks,” to correct “misconceptions” about culture and nationality, according to a reading of the meeting in state media. .
Last year, parents who refused to send their children back to school were threatened with dismissal, fines and student expulsion. In one district, officials offered cash to students who convinced their classmates to return, according to official notices.
The crackdown echoed Beijing’s movements in Xinjiang and Tibet, where similar assimilation policies have been implemented.
Xi, in a nod to the unrest, said on Friday that local officials should “persist in taking the right path to solve ethnic problems with Chinese characteristics.”
He said the people of Inner Mongolia should “learn by heart that the Han ethnic group cannot be separated from the ethnic minorities and that the ethnic minorities cannot be separated from the Han ethnic group.”
Officials should “do a good job of popularizing the common national language,” he said.
State broadcaster CCTV showed delegates, some in traditional Mongolian clothing, applauding Xi.
China opened its annual national meetings of parliament and the highest political advisory body this week, with thousands of delegates traveling to the capital to pass new legislation in a show of political unity.
