China Moves to Replace Ethnic Mongolians in Education Sector With Han Chinese

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stepped up moves to eliminate the Mongolian language in schools in its northern region of Inner Mongolia, ordering Mongolian-medium primary schools to switch to Chinese-medium teaching by the third grade, RFA has learned. The move comes after local education authorities quietly ordered Mongolian-medium schools in the region to begin switching to Chinese-medium classes in late August, sparking a regionwide protest and class boycott that saw thousands of ethnic Mongolians arrested in the crackdown that followed.

Now, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region government has ordered Mongolian-medium primary schools to end all Mongolian-medium teaching by the third grade, delivering all lessons in Chinese. Ethnic Mongolians holding official posts in school CCP committees and educational and cultural institutions are already being replaced with majority Han Chinese officials, according to Tie Mulun, a Japan-based member of the exile group Great Hural Assembly of Southern Mongolia.

Tie said the authorities have "various plans for the mandatory promotion of Chinese culture" to be implemented in 2021.

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