Inner Mongolia is against teaching in Chinese

The local government of Inner Mongolia, in northern China, announced that it would work hard to implement a new policy that would apply Chinese instruction to core subjects for students.

The police are reported to have launched an extensive search campaign for protesters who oppose the above policy.

Bu Xiaolin, chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said in a video meeting Tuesday that the new policy is a “key political mission”, and its implementation itself. as a way of showing loyalty to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leadership of the Communist Party, SCMP reported.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement shortly thereafter calling on the Chinese authorities to reverse the decision.

Ethnic Mongolians in northern China have had rare protests at the authorities’ decision to replace Chinese with Mongolian in school education.

By the time the schools began the new term, on Tuesday, September 1, some parents left their children at home to protest the policy.

“The Chinese government needs to reverse its new decision to increase the replacement of Mandarin-Mongolian in the language of instruction in Inner Mongolian schools,” said a Sept. 4 statement. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Under the new rules, the three main subjects in Inner Mongolia will gradually be taught in Mandarin, the official language in China.

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is home to 4.2 million ethnic Mongolians, representing approximately 17% of the population of the entire region, according to the 2010 census.

Many people see the new rules as a threat to their Mongol cultural identity.

During the weekend, in some cities, many students and parents protested.

“Our language is Mongolian and our hometown is Mongolian! Our mother tongue is Mongolian. We will sacrifice to protect our mother tongue!” Students chanted during a recent protest, reported by Radio Free Asia.

Images of women wagging their fingers or signing petitions protesting the language substitution have circulated widely on social media.

Starting early this month, under the new policy, schools will gradually transition to teaching three core subjects, including ethics, history and literature in primary and secondary schools, from Mongolian to Mandarin. Speak throughout the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, where there are Mongolian ethnic minorities.

The Southern Mongolia Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), a New York-based operations group, describes anger across the region where many parents only know it. about this policy change as schools are about to start.

The group said there was a tense standoff at a boarding school when hundreds of parents demanded the return of their children, including those who had previously enrolled.

“Hundreds of riot police have entered en masse, detained the parents, prevented them from entering the boarding area of ​​the school. After hours of confrontation, the parents finally broke through the police barrier and robbed. Come and collect your children, ”the group said in a statement.

Authorities have warned people in Inner Mongolia not to speak on social media. All posts on this topic on the Chinese microblogging network Weibo have been removed.

There is growing concern that some parents have left their children at home.

On Tuesday, staff at a school in Naiman County told the BBC that only about 40 students had signed up for the semester compared to the usual 1,000. After that, some changed their minds and only about 10 children attended school.

They say teachers have been sent to students’ homes to persuade parents to send their children back to school. However, they say parents are concerned that changing the language of education will harm their language.

Critics say the Chinese government has stepped up the assimilation of ethnic minorities, despite widespread international criticism of how the government treats minorities, including Uighurs. according to Islam in the Xinjiang region in western China.

“As in Xinjiang and Tibet, Chinese officials seem to place political imperatives above educational needs,” said Sophie Richardson, HRW China monitoring director. .

In a statement on Friday in response to growing discontent over the new policy, local Inner Mongolia officials stressed the importance of “strengthening national language education in minority areas.” number”.

The new rules also led some to protest in the neighboring nation’s capital, Mongolia.

Speaking to the BBC from Germany, Temtsiltu Shobtsood, chairman of the Inner Mongolia People’s Party, a group of exiles, accused China of trying to suppress the Mongolian language.

“The whole world is talking about human rights, but we are not getting enough recognition,” Shobtsood said, adding that the imposition of Chinese and Mandarin culture on minority communities in Inner Mongolia was a formality. “cultural genocide”.