By Peh Hong Lim, Voice of America – 24 October 2021
TAIPEI — After experiments aimed at assimilating ethnic minorities in Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, the Chinese government now is moving to apply its cultural assimilation policy for managing all minority populations by eliminating classroom instruction in native languages.
Late last month, Beijing released an updated blueprint for childhood development that removed a guarantee of the rights of minority children to be educated in their native language.
The new China National Program for Child Development (2021-2030), released on September 27, omitted previous directives such as “respect and protect the rights of children of ethnic minorities to be educated in their own language.”
Authorities changed the wording to “promoting the common national language.” The result is that children who belong to ethnic minorities likely will be taught to read and write Mandarin Chinese, instead of their native language in the classroom.
Eliminating or reducing the use of a language is one of the widely used tactics of forced assimilation. Imperial and Soviet Russia attempted to quash the use of Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian. England asserted control over Wales, Scotland and Ireland by banning schooling in those languages. Authorities banned the use of Hawaiian in public schools after American interests forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate in 1893. Read more here…