Mongolians hold anti-China protest in Tokyo
Sep 14, 2020
Tokyo [Japan], September 14 : The Mongolian community in Tokyo staged a demonstration against the Chinese government over its controversial language policy aimed at replacing Mongolian with Mandarin at educational institutions in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in China.
The protest saw the participation of around 1,000 activists and was held on September 12.
Protesters, wearing face masks in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, shouted anti-China slogans and held banners denouncing Beijing's language policy.
Similar protests against China have been held by ethnic Mongolians living in Japan in the last few days.
In Inner Mongolia, protests have been ongoing after the new education policy aimed at pushing Mandarin language education across the region sparked widespread unrest among the ethnic Mongolians. It has angered many as they see it as a move to erase their culture.
Thousands of students in Inner Mongolia have taken to streets to rally against China's three-year plan to push Mandarin language education across the region and phase out local history, literature and ethnic textbooks in favour of national course books.
According to local media reports, parents are also refusing to send their children to school in defiance of the new policy.
Activists say that under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has intensified its move to promote Mandarin and force the country's ethnic minorities to adopt a uniform Chinese identity.
The latest move to roll out Mandarin as a language of instruction has raised fears that it could be the end for a minority language already at risk of fading away.
Inner Mongolia has been seeing a growing resentment against Chinese rule in the region over the years owing to environmental damage due to the mining boom and economic growth, which has disproportionately benefited the ethnic Han community and rapid dismantling of Mongolian pastoral tradition.
