The Chinese government is forcing the erosion of Tibetan language as \nmedium of instruction in schools in Tibet, contrary to its own laws and \ninternational obligations, says a report released today by Human Rights \nWatch. The report says that kindergarten and elementary schools in \nTibet are teaching students in Chinese rather than Tibetan, risking the \nchildren\u2019s development and the survival of Tibetan culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly all middle schools and high schools in the Tibet Autonomous Region have been teaching students in Chinese since shortly after China annexed Tibet, a historically independent country, in 1959, says the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But according to the report\u2014titled \u201cChina\u2019s \u2018Bilingual Education\u2019 \nPolicy in Tibet: Tibetan Medium Schooling Under Threat\u201d\u2014new education \npolicies introduced by the Chinese government are now also leading \nkindergartens and elementary schools in the TAR to teach students in \nChinese instead of Tibetan. The TAR spans about half of Tibet, including\n most of western and central Tibet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The change in teaching language will likely hurt students\u2019 \ndevelopment, as evidence shows that children are negatively impacted \nwhen their early education is not in their mother tongue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps just as bad, the new policies seem aimed at indoctrinating \nchildren with Chinese propaganda from a young age and cutting them off \nfrom Tibetan culture and history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina\u2019s policies for Tibetan children in the TAR \u2026 show decreasing \nrespect for their right to use their mother-tongue or learn about and \nfreely express Tibetan cultural identity and values in schools,\u201d the \nreport says. \u201cRather, they embody an approach to schools and \nschoolchildren that appears to be eroding the Tibetan language skills of\n children and forcing them to consume political ideology and ideas \ncontrary to those of their parents and community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the report, the Chinese government is using many methods\n to make Chinese the dominant language in Tibetan schools, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These efforts have dramatically changed the makeup of education in \nTibet over the past decade. According to the report, a Chinese study \nfrom 2017 found that 30 percent of teachers in one Tibetan county could \nnot speak Tibetan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The effects have also been seen at the earliest levels: The report \nsays all 81,000 children above age three in preschools and kindergartens\n in the TAR are receiving \u201cbilingual education.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And though Chinese authorities publicly say they want students to \nlearn both Chinese and Tibetan, one official working in the TAR said he \nexpects the government to introduce a policy formally mandating that \nelementary schools in the region switch to Chinese-language instruction.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s new approach to education in Tibet is part of the Chinese \nCommunist Party\u2019s shift since 2014 to a policy of assimilation of \nminorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of this policy, officials promote \u201cethnic mingling\u201d and pressure minorities to identify with Chinese culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the TAR, attempts at forced assimilation were led in part by Chen Quanguo, the former Communist Party secretary of the region<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After leaving the TAR, Chen moved on to Xinjiang (known to Uyghurs as\n East Turkestan), where he helped set up the concentration camps in \nwhich more than 1 million Uyghurs have been detained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tibetans have resisted China\u2019s attempts to assimilate them and force them to abandon their culture and traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late 2015, Tibetan businessman Tashi Wangchuk appeared in a New \nYork Times video requesting Chinese officials to support Tibetan \nlanguage education in Tibet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, Tashi Wangchuk was arrested, likely tortured and given a five-year prison sentence<\/a> on charges of \u201cseparatism\u201d\u2014meaning attempts to separate Tibet from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite facing such consequences, Tibetans continue to speak out \nagainst China\u2019s language policies, the Human Rights Watch report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report says the imposition of Chinese-language teaching in \nTibetan schools could contradict China\u2019s own 2001 Law on Regional \nNational Autonomy, which says that minority schools \u201cshould, if \npossible, use textbooks printed in their own languages, and lessons \nshould be taught in those languages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, China\u2019s actions appear to violate international law. As \nthe report documents, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, \nwhich China ratified almost 30 years ago, says \u201ca child belonging to a \u2026\n minority \u2026 shall not be denied the right \u2026 to use his or her own \nlanguage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report notes that international bodies have criticized China\u2019s \ntreatment of Tibetan language education. In 2018, the UN Committee on \nthe Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination voiced concerns \nthat \u201cTibetan language teaching in schools in the [TAR] has not been \nplaced on an equal footing in law, policy and practice with Chinese, and\n that it has been significantly restricted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That year, Kai M\u00fcller, head of the International Campaign for Tibet\u2019s UN Advocacy Team, delivered an oral statement<\/a> to the committee saying that, \u201cTibetans cannot practice their religion freely, nor can they protect their culture and language in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChina\u2019s \u2018bilingual education\u2019 policy is motivated by political \nimperatives rather than educational ones,\u201d said Sophie Richardson, China\n director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement. \u201cThe Chinese government\n is violating its international legal obligations to provide \nTibetan-language instruction to Tibetans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human Rights Watch provides a number of recommendations for Chinese officials, including that they ensure all Tibetan students are able to use and learn the Tibetan language in schools; guarantee that the promotion of \u201cnational unity\u201d in China does not violate cultural and civil rights; release Tashi Wangchuk and other Tibetan political prisoners; and stop suppressing Tibetan individuals and groups calling for Tibetan language education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To compose its report, Human Rights Watch interviewed Tibetans \nbetween 2015 and 2019, including six Tibetan parents or teachers from \nrural areas in September 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The organization says it primarily relied on government publications,\n including newspapers and websites, as well as on some academic studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human Rights Watch notes that China places severe restrictions on \nresearchers and journalists from other countries who try to enter Tibet.\n The report says foreign researchers only get access to Tibet \u201cin \nextremely rare cases, and then only on subjects that are not sensitive \nor likely to produce findings critical of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report also notes that Tibetans \u201cface severe risks of \nrepercussions including potential arrest and prosecution\u201d if they speak \nwith foreigners about issues in Tibet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of China recently noted that the TAR is the only region of the People\u2019s Republic of China that journalists need prior permission to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late 2018, the US Congress passed the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act<\/a>, which calls on China to end its isolation of Tibet from the outside world and requires the State Department to sanction Chinese officials directly responsible for keeping Americans out of Tibet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This week, the International Campaign for Tibet called on the State Department<\/a> to implement the law fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTibetan protests<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Flouting international and Chinese laws<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Access to Tibet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n