Hundreds of Tibetan exiles recently took to the streets in Dharamshala and Mumbai, India, waving Tibetan flags and chanting slogans such as "Free Tibet," "China leave Tibet," and "Stop killing the Tibetan people." They were protesting China's "Law on Promoting National Unity and Progress," which officially came into effect in July of this year.
Beijing says the law aims to promote national unity and strengthen the sense of community of the Chinese nation. However, exiled Tibetans believe it could further accelerate the disappearance of the Tibetan language, culture, and ethnic identity.
The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress requires further strengthening education in the national common language and script, promoting exchanges and integration among all ethnic groups, and forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.
The Chinese government stated that promoting Putonghua (Mandarin) helps improve the quality of education and create employment opportunities, while also protecting the rights of all ethnic groups to learn and use their own languages and scripts in accordance with the law.
But the exiled Tibetans do not agree.
Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan exile who participated in the Mumbai protests, said: “China must immediately stop implementing this Law on the Promotion of National Unity and Progress. They are trying to erase the Tibetan language, culture, and identity through this law. We are worried that in five to ten years, the new generation of Tibetans may only speak Chinese and eventually become ‘Chinese.’”
In recent years, Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that "strengthening the sense of community of the Chinese nation" should be the main theme of ethnic work in the new era.
Meanwhile, boarding schools in Tibetan areas are expanding. UN experts and several international human rights organizations have stated that the increasing number of Tibetan children growing up away from home in Mandarin-speaking educational environments may affect the transmission of the Tibetan language, religion, and traditional culture.
Beijing responded that boarding schools meet the needs of local educational development, there is no so-called "forced assimilation," and emphasized that the rights of ethnic minorities to use languages and cultures are protected in accordance with the law.
However, critics argue that as Mandarin education expands and Tibetan language education shrinks, the new law could further promote ethnic assimilation.
In Beijing's view, the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress is an important step in strengthening national identity and safeguarding ethnic unity.
But for many exiled Tibetans, the real concern is not learning Mandarin itself, but whether Tibetan can continue to be passed down under an increasingly unified national identity, and whether Tibetan culture can retain its uniqueness.
This controversy reflects not only a new law, but also the long-standing tug-of-war between national unity and the protection of minority cultures.
