China is recasting "ethnic unity" as a matter of speaking the same language. Lawmakers in Beijing have approved legislation requiring all children from preschool through the end of high school to be taught in Mandarin, sharply curbing the use of minority languages such as Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian in classrooms, the BBC reports. The law—passed at the close of China's annual parliamentary session on Thursday, with just three nays and three abstentions out of more than 2,700 votes, per Reuters—also allows authorities to pursue parents or guardians who are deemed to be passing on views that could undermine "ethnic harmony," and promotes "embedded" communities that analysts say may dilute minority-heavy neighborhoods.
Officials frame the move as a way to boost job prospects and modernize through "greater unity." Critics, including scholars, see it as the latest step in a broader "Sinicization" drive under Xi Jinping, intensifying efforts to fold minorities into the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90% of the nation's population. Detractors warn that the law will accelerate the erosion of minority languages and cultures in regions like Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, with Beijing already accused by human rights groups and the UN of severe rights abuses—charges that China rejects. "It puts a death nail in the ... original promise of meaningful autonomy," says James Leibold, a professor at Australia's La Trobe University, of the new law, per the AP.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
