this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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China has approved a sweeping new law which claims to help promote "ethnic unity" - but critics say it will further erode the rights of minority groups.

On paper, it aims to promote integration among the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, through education and housing. But critics say it cuts people off from their language and culture.

It mandates that all children should be taught Mandarin before kindergarten and up until the end of high school. Previously students could study most of the curriculum in their native language such as Tibetan, Uyghur or Mongolian.

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[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 8 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

You are making some wild jumps in logic.

Learning another language is not "destroying a culture", this is a dog whistle of hardcore conservatives who are afraid of diversity. What would be destroying a culture, would be forcefully restricting the use of the native languages, such as forbidding the use of the native languages in schools. But I am not aware of this happening, nor was I arguing in support of that in any way.

Also, justifying a curriculum choice in schools is a far leap from justification of colonialism. I am very much against the forced subjugation of native peoples, but that is not the topic.

[–] 9bananas@feddit.org 1 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

overall good points, but I'd like to expand on the one about forbidding languages at educational institutions:

a ban isn't even necessary to expediate the decline of a language; it's often enough to simply defund it.

teachers need funding, and simply not giving any to other languages or other cultural curriculum is effectively the same as a ban.

few schools and administrations would shoulder the costs of "extra" curriculum, because few have the funds to do so, particularly when it comes to minorities...

source: am part of such a minority (in central europe though) and our state actually sponsors extra language classes, courses, and cultural clubs, activities, and events in order to preserve our unique identity and culture.

it's still trending towards extinction though, as such minorities tend to do...

tl;dr: no need for a ban, just withhold a bit of funding and it will die out within a few generations...

[–] hammertime@lemmy.org -4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You know nothing of what is going on, admittedly, and yet you somehow want to support it.

I suppose it was cool for the English to force the Aboriginal Australians to assimilate? Or, are you going to say that’s fake? Western Propaganda?

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Did you read my messages at all? As stated, I very much oppose the colonisation and forced subjugation and assimilation of native peoples, including in Australia. But I do not think that English being a mandatory subject in Australia is a bad thing.

Is the idea of someone knowing more than one language, so foreign to you?

[–] hammertime@lemmy.org -3 points 2 hours ago

So at a certain point, after all the subjugation has eliminated most of the native people, the remaining natives should probably learn the language of their oppressors?

You’re amazing.