← March 12, 2026 briefingPolitics
China passes law demoting minority languages in schools
China's National People's Congress has approved a new "ethnic unity" law requiring schools to use Mandarin as the default language of instruction, at the expense of Tibetan, Uyghur, Mongolian, and other minority tongues. The legislation, passed at the close of the annual two-sessions gathering, cements a years-long campaign to standardise Han Chinese culture across ethnically diverse regions.
