cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/51758910
In the name of promoting inter-ethnic harmony, China is to force dozens of ethnic minorities within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to assimilate into Han-dominated society by enacting a landmark law during the upcoming fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) which opens on Mar 5. The law will require ethnic minorities to use Mandarin Chinese as their main language of instruction, overturning decades-old policies that date back to the era of Mao Zedong, noted ft.com Mar 3.
[…]
The sweeping law marks the latest effort in a signature “Sinicization” campaign under Chinese leader Xi Jinping and prescribes legal action against anyone, inside or outside the country, who undermines “national unity” or provokes “separatism”.
The so-called Han majority accounts for more than 90% of the PRC’s population of 1.4 billion and the country’s constitution recognises 55 ethnic minorities, and a dozen languages — some with their own written scripts — and hundreds of dialects.
Under the new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, while minority languages may still be taught as a second language, groups such as Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongolians will no longer be entitled to use their native tongues for core subjects in schools and universities, the report noted.
[…]
The new law “overturns the multicultural promises upon which China was founded”, moving from “an idea of unity through difference or unity through pluralism, to one of unity through sameness, through the elimination of difference”, Benno Weiner, a historian of modern China, Tibet and Inner Asia at Carnegie Mellon University, has said.
“The conclusion that Xi Jinping and others seem to have come to is that diversity is dangerous.”
[…]
Worryingly, one clause in the new law is cited as saying only the state has the right to promote “a system of symbols of Chinese civilisation”, which can be used “in public facilities and architectural design, scenic area exhibitions, place naming and public activities”. Such policies, if enforced, meant there was “no way” that non-Han people would be able to safely express “any type of discontent without being accused of being essentially separatists or terrorists,” Weiner has said.
[…]
BrikoX@lemmy.zip 5 hours ago
That’s how it should be. That’s already how it works in most (might be all) of Europe.
That is fucked. Your minority status should never be used to exclude you from exercising all your rights.
Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org 4 hours ago
It is a really racist and dictatorial policy:
and
BrikoX@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
Mandating a single language to be used for full education is defintely not that. But the justifications for it can be interpreted as that, sure. And the whole supression of minority right issue is defintely not acceptable, but I wouldn’t say it’s exclusive to dictatorships.
dominic.borcea@piefed.social 3 hours ago
What Europe are you talking about??????? Because its definitely not in the Europe I’m in.
Minority people are very much entitled and do use their native language in schools and universities.
Belgium has dutch, french and german as its official langauges, each region teachin in the region’s langauge. Minority language communities have their own full school systems. Finland’s nationa languages are finnish and swedish; swedish-natives have the legal right to FULL education in their native tongue. There’s Swedish-langauge schools all over the country. Spain - basque, catalan, galician. Similar shit. Switzerland - german, french, italian and romansh - all national languages. Even the french, who go crazy about their language shit, still have breton and basque language schools. Romania, hungarians being the largest minority, there’s lots of hungarian-focused schools. German as well. Ukrainian, serbian, slovak, turkish. Uk - welsh, gaelic, and irish. Sweden - sami, finnish, romani and yiddish. Italy - german, french and slovenian.
I could talk all day. Not only is the opposite the reality about Europe, its definitely how it should be and its one of the things that Europe and the EU do right.
BrikoX@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
Yes, and Brussels have multiple because of their unique governing system. It’s an exception not the rule.
I can’t verify that. There are language schools, but I can’t find any details about full education being available in a minority langauge.
Again mostly an exception not the rule. Due to their similar language they are mostly bilingual and can relatively easily understand each other. And bilingualism is written in the constitution. Doesn’t extend to other minorities.
Spanish is the only official language in Spain, only autonomous regions are allowed to have their own official languages per the constitution.
Forgot about that one and why I said “most”. One of few countries that does allow uncoditional education in multiple languages.
Only French is an official language and while they allow foreign language schools most of them are bilingual as they still need to learn French to pass exams. No full education in foreign language.
Another exception and probably the most tolerant country as by law each minority that effectively can generate full classrooms are entitled to mother-tongue education.
Again limited to self-governing regions, England only allows British English.
Sami is only allowed in the Sami administrative area and Finnish have the same status as Swedish in Finland due to language similarities. As far as I know no other language offers full education, but it is technically allowed under the law for recognized minority languages. You still need Swedish to pass exams.
Their constitution allows autonomous regions to have co-official language but only German is available for full education as far as I know.
I’ll admit I overstated the situation in Europe as due to past imperialism there are some legacy protections and exceptions, but generally they are targeted and doesn’t apply to all minorities. Out of your examples only 3 have laws that offer universal right in mother-tongue language education.
And China is no different in that respect, as Hong Kong special administrative region allows full education in English.
To correct myself, about half the Europe only allows single national language for full education, while other half have either very limited execptions or full minority language protections in their constitutions. There is a strong push to encourage foreign languages as secondary and in the EU it’s even managed by law that at least one foreign language must be taught as secondary at some point in the education cycle.
Thank you for the comment as it made me do more research and learn some new things.