[lg policy] Tibet language protests spread in China

[Harold Schiffman]

Tibet language protests spread in China

Agence France-Presse in Beijing
Updated on Oct 22, 2010

Protests by Tibetan students demanding the right to study in their
language have spread to other areas of northwestern China, a
London-based Tibet rights group said. Thousands of middle school
students had protested Tuesday in Qinghai province's Malho Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture in anger at being forced to study in the Chinese
language, Free Tibet said. But the protests have since spread to two
adjacent Tibetan prefectures in the remote region, it said in a
statement on Thursday.

About 2,000 students from four schools in the town of Chabcha in
Tsolho prefecture marched on Wednesday to the local government
building, chanting “We want freedom for the Tibetan language,” the
group said. They were later turned back by police and teachers, it
said. Students also protested on Thursday in the town of Dawu in the
Golog Tibetan prefecture. Police responded by preventing local
residents from going out into the streets, it said.

Local government officials in both areas denied any protests. “We have
had no protests here. The students are calm here,” said an official
with the Gonghe county government in Tsolho, who identified himself
only by his surname Li. Local officials in China face pressure from
their seniors to maintain stability and typically deny reports of
unrest in their areas. The protests were sparked by education reforms
in Qinghai requiring all subjects to be taught in Mandarin and all
textbooks to be printed in Chinese except for Tibetan-language and
English classes, Free Tibet said.

“The use of Tibetan is being systematically wiped out as part of
China's strategy to cement its occupation of Tibet,” Free Tibet said
earlier this week. The area was the scene of violent anti-Chinese
protests in March 2008 that started in Tibet's capital Lhasa and
spread to nearby regions with large Tibetan populations such as
Qinghai. While Qinghai officially lies outside the borders China has
set for the Tibet region, much of it is part of the traditional
Tibetan homeland.

Many Tibetans accuse China of a campaign to water down their culture
in a bid to increase its control over the remote Himalayan region,
where resentment against Chinese rule runs deep. China has established
“autonomous” regions for some of its dozens of ethnic groups but many
members of those groups complain that policy is aimed at merely giving
the appearance of autonomy while Chinese control remains tight.

	Copyright © 2010 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All right reserved

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