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| Tibet (Photo: Gunther Hagleitner) |
(Tibet—May 19, 2022) Chinese authorities forced Tibetan parents to attend Chinese language
training classes to instill the idea of assimilation.
According
to a report by the UK-based human rights organization Tibet Watch, Chinese authorities have
begun forcing Tibetan parents to attend Chinese language training classes and
receive political and ideological education to use the parents to influence
Tibetan children. The CCP is now using Tibetan parents as a proxy tool to
promote the Chinese language to achieve its goals effectively, Human Rights Watch commented.
Beginning
in 2021, the Chinese government started to remove the bilingual education
policy in various parts of Tibet. It began to require the Ministry of Education
of the Tibet Autonomous Region to convert all school textbooks into the Chinese
language. Schools that previously used Tibetan as the primary language of
instruction will be forced to shut down.
Chinese
authorities not only prohibit Tibetan children from receiving Tibetan language education,
they also coerce Tibetan parents into learning Chinese.
One
of the training courses held on March 9 emphasized “not only teaching Chinese
but also reforming ideology through the Chinese language education.” Parents of
Tibetan students are required first to learn and improve their Chinese and then
cooperate with their children to learn Chinese as their contribution to the
realization of the “Chinese Dream.”
In
the Golok and Nagqu regions of Tibet, authorities have set up several Chinese
language training classes, forcibly teaching Chinese to local Tibetan parents
and instilling CCP ideology. In addition to learning Chinese, Tibetans were
told to study Xi Jinping’s Thought and urged to disseminate their new knowledge
of Xi’s Thought when they return to their villages.
Previously,
the Chinese government had enforced an education model which used Chinese as
the medium of instruction in the Tibetan region. In schools, teachers,
students, and staff were required to communicate only in Chinese to achieve the
purpose of “assimilation.”
The
Chinese government announced in December last year that by 2025, at least
eighty-five percent of China’s total population, including ethnic minorities,
will be native speakers of Chinese. Under pressure from this policy, the Tibet
Autonomous Region requires schoolteachers and homemakers to be proficient in
Chinese. This policy will gradually force Tibetans to adapt to the new normal
of speaking Chinese in their daily lives. The essence is to eliminate the
unique language and culture of Tibet.
~Gao
Zhensai, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid
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