The Digester

Beijing has approved a national law mandating Mandarin education for minority children from pre-kindergarten to high school and giving authorities new enforcement powers, a move officials say will boost opportunity while critics warn it will weaken minority languages and cultures.

The National People's Congress passed the 'Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress' law this week.
The law mandates Mandarin instruction from before kindergarten through the end of high school, replacing earlier options for education in minority languages.
It creates legal grounds to prosecute parents or guardians for imparting views judged harmful to ethnic harmony and promotes mixed residential and community environments.
Beijing says the law will modernize the country and improve minorities' job prospects by increasing Mandarin fluency.
Critics and scholars say the measure accelerates sinicization and threatens minority languages and cultures in regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
The law follows a decade-long push toward assimilation under Xi Jinping and was approved at a National People's Congress session that routinely passes government proposals.

China approves law requiring Mandarin instruction for all minority children

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