Teenage Tibetan arrested by Chinese police for appealing for education in the Tibetan language

On 16 August 2021, a 19-year old Tibetan boy was arrested and taken into custody by Chinese police in eastern Tibetan province of Amdo on allegations of rebelling against the Chinese government, while he was only appealing for education in the Tibetan language.

TibetWatch reports that Sherab Dorjee had not only refused to join the CCP propaganda organised in Trotsik Township by Ngaba County where police authorities called a meeting on ‘Praising the Communist Party of China and education on the security agenda’. He had also submitted a petition to the education authorities appealing for his school to be allowed to teach in Tibetan.

According to a TibetWatch report, on 14 August, several Chinese police arrived in Trotsik Township and held a propaganda meeting for Tibetan youngsters and later arrested Sherab Dorjee along with a few other students. All those arrested were released except Dorjee.

A source explained to TibetWatch that Dorjee might have been arrested mainly because of his recent involvement in submitting a petition against the county government’s orders on schools to instruct only in Chinese when the schools reopen after the end of summer vacation this year. In response, Sherab Dorjee and a few other students from the Tibetan Middle School of Machu County submitted a joint petition to the concerned education office, appealing to them to allow teaching in Tibetan to continue.

China forcing Chinese language on Tibetans

Chinese authorities in all township and county levels in Sichuan Province have recently been carrying out numerous campaigns to enforce CCP’s propagandist political education and influence young Tibetans to learn Chinese.

An Associated Press report quotes Wang Yang, a top Chinese official, who on Thursday said that “all-round efforts” are needed to ensure Tibetans speak standard spoken and written Chinese and share the “cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation.”

Wang Yang made the remarks before a handpicked audience in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the home of Tibet’s traditional Buddhist leaders, at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of the vast Himalayan region.