Foreign News
China approves ‘ethnic unity’ law requiring minorities to learn Mandarin
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.
The law was approved on Thursday as the annual rubber-stamp parliamentary session drew to an end.
“The law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift, to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognised since 1949,” Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University said in a university report.
“The children of the next generation are now isolated and brutally forced to forget their own language and culture.”
However, Beijing argues that teaching the next generation Mandarin will help their job prospects.
It also says the law for “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” is crucial for promoting “modernisation through greater unity”.
The law was voted and passed on Thursday at the National People’s Congress in Beijing, which has never rejected an item on its agenda.
The law also provides a legal basis to prosecute parents or guardians who may instil what it described as “detrimental” views in children which would affect ethnic harmony and it calls for “mutually embedded community environments” which some analysts believe could result in the break up of minority-heavy neighbourhoods.
The Chinese government started to push for what it describes as the “sinicisation” of minority groups in the late 2000s and create a more unified national identity by assimilating ethnic groups into the dominant Han culture.
Han Chinese make up more than 90% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
Beijing has long been accused of restricting the rights of minority ethnic groups in regions like Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
Critics say assimilation has often been forced on people in these places – a state-led policy that has accelerated under Chinese leader Xi Jinping who has taken a harder line on dissent and protests, especially in areas home to minority ethnic groups,
In Tibet, the authorities have arrested monks, and taken control of monasteries to ensure they do not worship the Dalai Lama.
When the BBC visited a monastery that had been at heart of Tibetan resistance in July last year, monks spoke of living under fear and intimidation.
“We Tibetans are denied basic human rights. The Chinese government continues to oppress and persecute us. It is not a government that serves the people,” one of them told us.
In Xinjiang, human rights groups have documented the detention of a million Uyghur Muslims in what the Chinese government calls camps for “re-education”, while the UN has accused Beijing of grave human rights violations.
The BBC’s reporting from 2021 and 2022 found evidence supporting the existence of detention camps, and allegations of sexual abuse and forced sterilisation, which Beijing denies.
In 2020, ethnic Mongolians in northern China staged rare rallies against measures to reduce teaching in the Mongolian language in favour of Mandarin.
Parents even held children back in protest at the policy as some ethnic Mongolians viewed the move as a threat to their cultural identity. Authorities moved quickly to crackdown on what it saw as dissent.
The Communist Party says it embraces different ethnicities. The country’s constitution states that “each ethnicity has the right to use and develop their own language” and “have the right to self-rule”.
But critics believe this new law will cement Xi’s push toward assimilation.
“The law makes it clearer than ever that in Xi Jinping’s PRC non-Han peoples must do more to integrate themselves with the Han majority, and above all else be loyal to Beijing,” Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University said, referencing China by the initials of its official name.
This focus on development and prosperity is “telling”, Professor Ian Chong of the National University of Singapore told the BBC.
“It is easy to read this language as meaning that minority languages and cultures are backward and impediments to advancement.”
Xi’s approach towards minorities is “consistent with his idea of creating a great and strong Chinese nation with a northern Han core… minorities are seen as branching off from that core, and hence in some ways derivative,” he adds.
“In practice, this has prompted concerns about further rounds of increasing control, diminution, and even crackdowns on minority cultures and languages.”
[BBC]
A rescue diver has died while searching for the bodies of a group of Italians who died in a scuba-diving accident in the Maldives.
Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee was taken to hospital in critical condition and later succumbed to his injuries, a government spokesman told the BBC on Saturday.
Five Italians died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of around 50m (164ft) on Thursday. So far, the body of one of them is thought to have been recovered, in a cave at a depth of around 60m (197ft).
The incident is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the tiny Indian Ocean nation, a popular tourist destination because of its string of coral islands.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu travelled to Vaavu Atoll on Saturday to observe the search operations.
“Eight rescue divers went into the water today. When they surfaced, they realised Mahdhee didn’t come up,” Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesman told the BBC.
The other divers immediately went into the water again and they found Mahdhee had blacked out.
The Maldives military has described the operation as very high risk, with unfavourable weather conditions.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani sent condolences: “These days of grief for Italy are compounded by the news that one of your brave soldiers… died while attempting to dive to reach the bodies of our fellow Italians.”
“This tragedy unites Italy and the Maldives in grief and respect for the victims,” he added.
Four of the Italian divers were part of a University of Genoa team, including professor of ecology Monica Montefalcone, her daughter and two researchers. The fifth was a boat operations manager and diving instructor.
The five entered the water at Vaavu Atoll on Thursday morning, local media said, and were reported missing when they failed to resurface later on.
Police said the weather was rough in the area, about 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, Male. A yellow warning was issued for passenger boats and fishermen.
Shareef said recreational scuba divers were only allowed to dive up to a depth of 30m and it was not clear why the Italians went into a cave that’s 60m under water.
Italy’s foreign ministry said earlier that another 20 Italian nationals aboard the Duke of York yacht, from which the five divers took off, were unharmed and receiving assistance from the Embassy of Italy in Colombo, Sri Lanka
[BBC]
At least eight people have been killed, and dozens injured, after a freight train crashed into a public bus in Thailand’s capital.
Flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles near an airport rail link station in the centre of Bangkok Saturday afternoon.
The city’s emergency services Erawan Medical Center confirmed the number of deaths, while Bangkok police chief Urumporn Koondejsumrit told AFP news agency at least 35 people were injured.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, Deputy Transport Minister Siripong Angkasakulkiat said that all the bodies were found on the bus. It was not yet clear how many people were on board in total.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered an investigation into the crash, according to a statement from his office.
Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Bangkok, said the crash unfolded around 3:40pm local time (08:40 GMT), when the bus appeared to get stuck on an intersection with the rail line after the safety barriers descended.
As the freight train rammed into the stationary bus and continued travelling, it dragged several nearby vehicles along with it before the bus burst into flames.
Siripong would not confirm whether the bus had stopped on the railway track or discuss reports that the barriers may not have lowered properly, saying the matter still needs to be investigated.
Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched to pull people from the wreckage and battle the flames as motorcyclists and passersby attempted to redirect traffic.
The fire has since been brought under control.
[Aljazeera]
New Zealand’s Māori Queen Te Arikinui Kuini Nga Wai hono i te po has met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
The meeting with the British monarch was Te Arikinui’s first since she became queen in 2024, following the death of her father, Kiingi Tuheitia.
The visit marks a near 200-year relationship between the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and the crown, formalised in the Treaty of Waitangi, one of New Zealand’s founding documents.
A spokesperson for the queen says the two discussed the former king’s death in what was a “heartfelt” discussion, as well as the strengthening of their relationship.
Earlier this week, the Māori queen was also welcomed by Prince William to Windsor Castle.
In a post on Instagram, Prince William acknowledged the visit, saying, “it was a pleasure to meet with the Queen.”
A statement released after the meeting from the Kīngitanga said the Māori queen discussed a range of global topics with Prince William.
“Te Arikinui affirmed her belief in the power of indigenous knowledge and intergenerational stewardship to help solve the world’s environmental and social challenges.”
Te Arikinui was crowned in 2024 after the death of her father – becoming only the second Māori queen, the first being her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
The Māori monarchy dates back to the 19th Century, when different Māori tribes decided to create a unifying figure similar to that of a European monarch in order to try to prevent the widespread loss of land to New Zealand’s British colonisers and to preserve Māori culture. It is a largely ceremonial and symbolic role.
[BBC]
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