Chinese officials tried to defuse discontent following days of student protests in ethnically Tibetan areas, saying a plan to teach classes only in Mandarin Chinese was not aimed at wiping out Tibet’s native tongue, state media reported yesterday.
Changes won’t be forced in areas where “conditions are not ripe,” the official Xinhua news agency cited Qinghai Province Education Department Director Wang Yubo (王予波) as saying.
The report did not elaborate on how officials would make that determination.
The London-based group Free Tibet has said that hundreds, possibly thousands, of middle, high school and college students joined the demonstrations.
For Chinese authorities, any sign of unrest among Tibetans is seen as a threat to national sovereignty and a reminder of past uprisings against China’s often heavy-handed rule over the Himalayan region.
No arrests or violence were reported following the student protests that began in the town of Tongren and soon spread to other communities in the Qinghai Province, which is home to numerous minority ethnic groups, including Tibetans and Mongolians, who retain their own languages. There was also a similar protest on the campus of a Beijing university.
The protests appear to have been sparked by remarks by Qiang Wei (強衛), Qinghai Province’s Chinese Communist Party chief, who was quoted last month by the Communist Party’s official newspaper as praising the use of a “common language” in schools.
A report on Qinghai’s plans for educational reform over the next decade has said “the nation’s common language must become the language of instruction.”
Students fear the government’s plan means the current bilingual system will be scrapped in favor of using Mandarin alone, except in language classes.
The goal of the policy is to bridge the education gap between China’s various ethnic groups and promote development in ethnic minority areas, Xinhua said, citing an open letter issued by the Qinghai Provincial Government to all teachers and students on Friday.
Authorities will respect the viewpoints of students and their parents before carrying out reforms, Xinhua cited Wang as saying.
Xinhua also gave the first official confirmation that students had “expressed their dissatisfaction” in at least four Tibetan prefectures in Qinghai between Sunday and Wednesday.
Use of the Tibetan language is tied to the region’s political struggles. Many Tibetans argue they have traditionally been self-governing and that Chinese policies are wrecking their unique Buddhist culture. However, the issue is complicated because while many Tibetans feel threatened by development and the migration of China’s ethnic Han majority, some also hope their children master Mandarin in order to obtain better jobs.
Beijing defends its policies, saying they spur economic growth in the largely poor areas.
About 500 students at the Beijing campus of Minzu University of China, a leading institution for ethnic minority students, protested for language rights on Friday.
Pictures posted on Twitter showed a group of students carrying a banner saying “Protect ethnic minority languages, carry forward Chinese civilization.”
Brewing discontent with Beijing’s policies exploded into deadly rioting in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, in 2008, then spread through traditionally Tibetan areas such as Tongren. The government says at least 22 people were killed in Lhasa, while Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans died in the violence.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia