“ The UN warned that about 1m Tibetan children have been sent toChinese boarding schools seemingly under a government policy to assimilate them into majority Han culture. Instruction is only in Mandarin, making it difficult for Tibetan children to communicate with family in their native language and contributing to the “erosion” of their identity, said three UN special rapporteurs.”
Economist
Similar to Canada and Australia’s treatment of native children.
The reason is, of course, different.
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And stopped. The Chinese are doing the same to the Moslem Uigurs too, aren’t they?
And now Cantonese children in Hong Kong are being switched to Mandarin and made to sing the PRC anthem every morning, amongst other ‘nationalisation’ measures. China is an autocratic ruler with an agenda.
Today, 47 pro democracy legislators are to be summarily convicted under the new ‘subversion’ laws deemed as treason against China. The verdict is a forgone conclusion. Some of these, many young persons, have been languishing in prison since their arrest 2 years ago. The courts will rule under China’s legal system. Nothing we would recognise as justice.
China’s school system prepares children to follow without question. No diversity will be tolerated.
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I expect some to say that any preparation or pro-active actions is provocation and leading us towards a confrontation. However, we have seen in Ukraine the result of not being prepared and being in reactive position.
No one wants an armed confrontation with China but the concern is what China wants.
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In contrast to the situation with Russia, it is China not the US provoking a response here. Had Russia rattled its sabre thirty years ago, as the US is doing now, maybe the Ukraine disaster could have been averted. So good luck to the US and Oz. I’m not sure what value add the UK can provide so far from home apart from visable and moral support.
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And here in France - Breton was suppressed by the French state - a suppression that officially ended in the 1950s but in practice carried on - indeed it is still in dispute - eg. Breton has some different accented letters which are not allowed in registered names because the French state only allows the use of French letters.
There is a difference between banning a language and the kidnapping and rearing outside their culture of children though Geoff. In my own family only 2 generations back Welsh was banned in schools and now is compulsory I think.
While we’re talking about accented letters my view is that they all should be banned as a waste of time and a hindrance to learning. One of the major languages of the world has no such nonsense, English of course.
Sits back with tin hat on waiting for incoming. 
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I wasn’t suggesting any exact parallel between Brittany and Tibet David !
My comment was more of a ‘this is also interesting…’ kind of contribution.
We do though always have to beware a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to far-away places, when similar things have gone on in our own backyard.- Britain’s ‘child migrant programme’ - universally condemned as cruel now - was still going on in the 1970s - ripping children from their homes and country, often to become near slaves in foster homes on remote farms or in foreign state or church institutions - and often enough subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
The UK and US think of themselves as stable democracies - yet one-person-one-vote was not fully, legally established in either until the 1960s - and is still resisted and undermined by some sections of their societies.
We should oppose abuse of democratic and human rights wherever they occur - but always with humility, and an awareness that our own societies are far from perfect.
The worst example of the tendency to criticise foreigners rather than look to ourselves, by the way, is surely climate/ecological breakdown - having extracted enormous wealth over centuries from the world’s fossil fuels and other resources - not to mention slave and other forms of forced labour - some of the ‘western’ beneficiaries of this exploitation now turn to the countries they have exploited and say ‘it’s your problem’ - even though per capita emissions in the US, for example, are even now still twice as high as China’s.
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Well I for one thankfully don’t do that, but I did love this:
The UK and US think of themselves as stable democracies
they do don’t they, when neither of those 2 descriptions fit.
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I think we’d all agree that Tibet is more mountainous and that it’s probably not a good idea to try and make cider from yak’s milk…
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