onsdag 9. september 2020

China Detains Hundreds for 'Rumor-Mongering' Amid Mongolian Schools Protests

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has suspended two county-level officials in its northern region of Inner Mongolia for failing to implement its directives amid a region-wide schools boycott and widespread protests against plans to phase out Mongolian-medium education. The party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) imposed the penalty on two section-level leading cadres in Zhenglan Banner -- a county-level division, according to a Sept. 5 report on the banner government's official Shangdu news website.

They were accused of "failing to implement" directives from the ruling party's Central Committee in Beijing, indicating that the order to make sweeping changes to Mongolian-medium education in the region came all the way from the top. The Communist Party committee of Bairin Right Banner -- a county-level division -- also warned recently that civil servants and public employees must send their children back to schools on Monday, or face suspension without pay from Sept. 8 pending expulsion hearings.

The announcements came as hundreds of ethnic Mongolians were arrested or forced to resign from public office after they resisted the changes to the curriculum, which were kept under wraps until the start of the new semester at the end of August.