(TibetanReview.net, Dec11’24) –Addressing the ruling party’s top policymaking body, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Dec 9 that it was necessary to guide all ethnic groups in border regions to “continuously enhance their recognition of the Chinese nation, Chinese culture and the Communist Party” and that Mandarin should be spoken more broadly in those areas.
Addressing a Politburo study session, Xi said maintaining security and stability was the “baseline requirement” for border governance, reported the scmp.com Dec 10, citing a state news agency Xinhua report Dec 11.
For this purpose, the use of the common Chinese language, Mandarin, and nationally unified textbooks should be promoted, he has said.
“We should continue to deepen efforts on ethnic unity and progress, actively build an integrated social structure and community environment, and promote the unity of all ethnic groups – like pomegranate seeds tightly held together,” Xi has said.
Xi was stated to have renewed those calls as the 24-member Politburo held a group study session on the history of Chinese border governance.
The report noted that the Politburo regularly holds such sessions, with discussion usually led by an academic. The Dec 9 session was stated to have been led by Li Guoqiang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of History.
The borderlands of the People’s Republic of China stretch across five provinces – Yunnan in the southwest, Gansu in the northwest, and Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang in the northeast – as well as four autonomous regions – Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur in the west, Inner Mongolia in the north and Guangxi Zhuang in the south, the report noted.
Ethnic tensions in those autonomous regions, especially Xinjiang and Tibet, have historically been a challenge for Beijing.
The report said that in recent years, authorities had stepped up efforts to promote Mandarin-language education as part of a nationwide drive to assimilate people from ethnic minorities into the majority Han culture. But this led to large-scale street protests over fears that the native language would be wiped out, including especially in Inner Mongolia and parts of Historical Tibet.
“The development of border areas must be incorporated into the overall strategy of Chinese-style modernisation, regional coordinated development strategies, and major regional strategies,” Xinhua was reported to have quoted Xi as saying.
He has also called for efforts to support border areas to leverage their resources and advantages to achieve development.
He wanted more multidisciplinary research on border history and governance and for accelerated efforts to establish a Chinese “knowledge system” on border studies, the report added.
“No border area shall be left behind in advancing Chinese modernization,” a Xinhua report Dec 10 quoted Xi as saying in an English-language report.
The English-language Xinhua report on Xi’s address to the study session did not contain any reference to more use of Mandarin in border areas and focused mostly on his stress on “sound governance, high-quality development in border areas”.