Mass protests have erupted across northern China as tens of thousands of ethnic Mongolian students and their parents rally against government plans to phase out teaching in their language. The rare display of dissent in the Inner Mongolian cities of Tongliao, Ordos and the regional capital, Hohhot, began last week in opposition to a move by Beijing to gradually shift the language of instruction in schools from Mongolian to Mandarin Chinese in three key subjects. According to Radio Free Asia, pupils have boycotted classes and kneeling students at one school chanted: “Our language is Mongolian, and our homeland is Mongolia forever! Our mother tongue is Mongolian, and we will die for our mother tongue!” Riot police have reportedly been dispatched to other schools across the region, with accounts of the authorities locking down campuses and pupils bursting through police cordons to join their demonstrating parents at the gates. In one of the more disturbing RFA reports, a student is said to have died after jumping from the roof of his high school after seeing his mother detained.
