Looking back at the year just past 2020, the Chinese government is accelerating its assimilation campaign against the country’s ethnic minorities. U.S. politicians and human rights groups have condemned Beijing’s push for ethnic assimilation.
The international community and human rights groups say that Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who came to office with a national vision of the “China Dream,” is promoting a campaign to assimilate the country’s more than 50 ethnic minorities into a single nationality and national identity in the areas of “united war” and ethnic work.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday (Dec. 31, 2020) that Beijing is actively promoting a cultural assimilation program, or “ethnic integration” as it is referred to in official documents and propaganda. But in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, the government’s campaign has gone to extremes. Beijing has set up so-called “training” facilities in Xinjiang that have become “the largest internment of ethnic minorities since World War II. Reports say the campaign has begun to spread and intensify in other minority areas.
In Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
In Inner Mongolia, a plan to expand Mandarin education and mandate the use of state-unified teaching materials has sparked protests by local Mongolian students and parents and resistance from schools; people fear that their native Mongolian language is in danger of being wiped out.
The Chinese government mandated that all primary and secondary schools in Inner Mongolia switch to Mandarin Chinese as the main curriculum from September 1, 2020, and remove the Mongolian language from the core curriculum list. The policy sparked protests in some areas of the autonomous region when it was first implemented.
According to the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, on the first day of the new school year, September 1, Mongolian schools throughout the “Southern Mongolian region” were empty, and students and teachers went on strike to protest the Chinese government’s policy.
An Associated Press report at the time quoted a local high school student in Inner Mongolia as saying that students had stormed out of the school that day; however, a large number of police officers arrived and sent them back to class. The high school student said that while the policy does not directly affect them, it will have a huge impact on their future.
The protests in Inner Mongolia sparked a response from neighboring Mongolia. Former Mongolian President Elbegdorj tweeted, “We need to show solidarity with Mongolians in their efforts to preserve their native language and scriptures in China. Learning and using their mother tongue is an inalienable right of all people.”
Enkhbatu, director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, told Voice of America that Chinese Communist authorities have long pursued a policy of eliminating Mongolian language education in Southern Mongolia. Mongolian human rights activists abroad often refer to China’s “Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region” as “Southern Mongolia” and Mongolia to the north as “Northern Mongolia.
China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the only place in the world where traditional Mongolian is spoken, while Mongolia to the north uses the former Soviet-influenced “Cyrillic” alphabet.
In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Beijing’s campaign of ethnic assimilation relies in part on security facilities established to monitor and control the population. This includes the introduction of high-tech police surveillance systems in areas with large minority populations, a tactic used by Beijing in Xinjiang to monitor the local Uighur population. For their part, local officials have said that taking these measures is necessary for the region’s security.
Since 2016, Chinese authorities have formed thousands of new public security police stations in Xinjiang and installed billions of dollars worth of high-tech surveillance equipment. Many religious sites have been banned, and a system of detention facilities has been established throughout the autonomous region to monitor the activities of local Uighur Muslims in an unprecedented manner.
The U.S. Congress and the Administration’s China Committee recently (December 30, 2020) held a press conference condemning the Chinese government’s sentencing of Xinjiang Uyghur Guldein Abbas to 20 years in prison, as well as other crimes against humanity committed by Chinese authorities against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Rep. Smith, a Republican member of the U.S. Congress, called the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang “an act of genocide.
Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s general secretary, has rejected international criticism of Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang, saying at a conference last September that the Chinese government’s policies and strategies in Xinjiang are entirely correct.
In the Tibet Autonomous Region
The Chinese government’s control over Tibet has been the strictest since the establishment of the regime in 1949. For a long time, foreigners have required special approval procedures and permits to travel into Tibet.
In already tightly controlled Tibet, the local government has also launched a new “militarized” vocational training program and adopted new regulations to promote national unity and patriotism in the region.
Previously unreported government documents indicate that Chinese security forces are installing sophisticated surveillance and predictive policing systems to anticipate the activities of those on authorities’ watch lists.
The U.S. Congress passed the Tibet Policy and Support Act in late December last year, making demands on Beijing to protect the rights of the Tibetan people, among other things, and saying that the Chinese government would be held accountable if it interfered with Tibetan religious affairs. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle praised the passage of the bill, saying it reflects the U.S. determination to protect the rights and interests of the Tibetan people.
The government-in-exile “Tibetan Administration Central Committee” secretary-general Lobsang Senghor told Reuters that the passage of the “Tibet Policy and Support Act” is a historic event. He said, “The passage of the Tibet Policy and Support Act by the U.S. Congress sends a clear message that Tibet remains a priority for the United States and that the United States will continue to stand firmly behind His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Administrative Central Committee.”
Lobsang Senghor previously met with the new U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. It was the first time in 60 years that the U.S. State Department hosted the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
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