The United States has imposed new visa restrictions on Chinese officials accused of being involved in the alleged “forced assimilation” of over one million Tibetan children in state-run boarding schools.
Students in Tibet are going to larger schools – often to board – as smaller schools in rural areas are closed [Source: Hector Retamal/AFP]
US Urges China to Stop the Forced Assimilation of Tibetan Children
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not name anyone involved, but he encouraged Beijing to stop its coercive measures in the culturally diverse Far West. According to Blinken, these aggressive policies aim to eradicate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions among younger Tibetan generations. They are pleading with PRC officials to cease forcing Tibetan children to attend government-run boarding schools and to end oppressive assimilation practices in Tibet and throughout the PRC.
A delegation of United Nations experts raised concern in February that the system of residential schools looked to act as a mandatory large-scale program intended to assimilate Tibetans into the majority Han culture. According to the report, the system was expanding as rural schools were closed, and approximately 1 million children had been separated from their families to attend such institutions, where they were forced to complete a “compulsory education” curriculum in Mandarin Chinese, with no substantive study of Tibetan language, history, or culture.
According to the US, young Tibetans are becoming less proficient in their mother tongue and are also losing the capacity to have simple conversations in Tibet with their parents and grandparents. This is a factor that contributes to the assimilation and loss of identity that occurs in these individuals. The most recent visa restrictions are being implemented at a time when Washington and Beijing are working to improve their relationship, which has been strained due to disagreements over a variety of issues, including trade, the causes of the COVID-19 outbreak, the treatment of largely Muslim Uighurs, and the situation in Taiwan.
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Schools were Provided by Chinese to Meet the Needs of the Population: Explained by Chinese Embassy
The new US move was condemned by Beijing as “smears” that “seriously undermine China-US relations.” According to Liu Pengyu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, the schools were established to meet the needs of the local populace. “Boarding schools have gradually developed into one of the important modes of running schools in China’s ethnic minority areas, and the centralized way of running schools effectively solves the problem of ethnic minority students’ difficulty attending school at a distance where the local people live scattered,” he explained.
Last December, the US named experienced diplomat Uzra Zeya as Tibet coordinator, with the mandate to “promote substantive dialogue” between China and the Dalai Lama, as well as to advocate for the Tibetan people’s human rights and “fundamental freedoms.” The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 established the coordinator’s office, which works under the State Department.
China seized control of Tibet in 1950 as part of its “peaceful liberation” of the province. After a failed revolt against Chinese control in 1959, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, retreated into exile in India. Beijing’s control has been described as “cultural genocide” by him. Beijing regards him as a dangerous separatist and recognizes the present Panchen Lama as Tibet’s greatest religious figure. The party installed the Panchen Lama.
