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TONGLIAO, China: As his son returned to school under the watchful eye of plainclothes policemen, an ethnic Mongolian father admitted defeat after days of battling a Chinese state-imposed curriculum that he fears will stifle his culture .
“The spirit (of resistance) is still there, but we are scared,” the man said, requesting anonymity as he watched other students carry their bags back to Tongliao Mongolian High School after a week-long boycott.
“Little by little, parents are giving back their children.”
Tens of thousands took part in demonstrations and school boycotts in Inner Mongolia, a vast expanse of northern China where herders transport cattle across the grasslands, to protest an edict requiring the teaching of the Mandarin language, fearing it will end your language.
The rare mass demonstrations organized by ethnic Mongolians are the largest China has seen in decades, where Chinese President Xi Jinping’s authorities did not tolerate dissent.
But then came the repression.
The armored vehicles entered to surround schools in Tongliao, a stronghold of resistance where ethnic Mongols make up nearly half the population.
The crackdown echoes Beijing’s movements in Xinjiang and Tibet, where similar policies were implemented to assimilate local minorities into the dominant Han population in accordance with Xi’s vision of national and ideological unity through identity. cultural.
Police offered cash rewards for leads on the ringleaders and released the arrests of dozens of suspects accused of collecting signatures and sharing dissenting messages on WeChat.
Ethnic Mongols make up less than a fifth of the region’s 25.3 million inhabitants, and are outnumbered by Han Chinese AFP / NOEL CELIS
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 trawl has intimidated the most outspoken.
The petitions that circulated in early September and other external signs of dissent have evaporated, as fear silenced many internal Mongols.
During a recent trip to the region, AFP reporters were followed by a convoy of propaganda officers and unidentified men, leaving the contacts nervous and fearful of being identified.
FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF XINJIANG, TIBET
The new rules, hastily imposed for the start of the term on September 1, say that Mandarin must be taught from first grade, a year earlier than before, in all bilingual boarding schools in the region.
History, politics and literature will now also be taught in Mandarin instead of Mongolian.
Similar education policies have been introduced in Xinjiang and Tibet, other border regions that have faced government repression and extensive campaigns to control minority education, religions and cultures.
“This is something that we cannot accept,” the father told AFP.
“For young children who are now around seven or eight years old, in a decade or two they won’t be able to speak to their grandparents in their own language.”
ASSIMILATION DRIVE
Ethnic Mongols make up less than a fifth of the region’s 25.3 million people, and are outnumbered by Han Chinese.
But they are tremendously proud of a heritage they share with Mongolia in the north, and fear that Beijing is intensifying its assimilation campaign.
“Schools are in a way to the Mongolian ethnic identity what monasteries are to the Tibetan identity and what Islamic festivals and shrines are to the Uighur identity,” said Chris Atwood, professor of Mongolian and Chinese studies at the University. from Pennsylvania.
The interference in the curriculum aligns with Xi’s comments that Mandarin language ability leads to greater prosperity and social mobility for ethnic minorities in China.
That carries “indications that there is something wrong with minority language education,” Atwood added.
Authorities show no signs of backing down.
Regional Governor Bu Xiaolin has declared that implementing the Mandarin policy is an “important political task”.
The Inner Mongolia Bureau of Education did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
Bainuu, the only Mongolian-language social media app available in China, was withdrawn by authorities in August.
HOME SCHOOLS THREATENED
In neighboring Mongolia, which has close economic ties to China, the move sparked a huge public uproar, though politicians have yet to challenge China on the issue.
Despite mounting pressure from the authorities, a small minority continues to defy orders from the local government.
A father from Tongliao told AFP by phone that his young son is being homeschooled, despite repeated threats from local police.
“My son’s thinking is still like a traditional Mongolian, but if they enter the (Mandarin) school environment, they will lose that identity,” said the father, who withheld his name for his safety.
“This is a very scary situation.”
The change in the curriculum shows that China is determined to “do away with the Mongolian language, culture and identity,” says Enghebatu Togochog, director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, based in the city of New York.
“Mongols really don’t want to lose their language. If they lose this, they lose everything.”
