Beijing appears to be accelerating education programs designed to dilute the ethno-linguistic bond that gives Uighurs and Tibetans their distinct identity.<\/p>\n
J. Michael Cole
\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b2016\/08\/17<\/p>\n
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region authorities will dispatch a total of 2,939 Uighur-speaking Chinese teachers to schools across inland China as part of a two-year \u201caid program\u201d designed to provide \u201canti-separatism\u201d education and promote unity among students in the primarily Muslim territory.<\/p>\n
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xinjiang Party Chief Zhang Chunxian (\u5f35\u6625\u8ce2) told a send-off meeting on Monday that teachers should encourage students to \u201cpromote unity\u201d and fight \u201cseparatism\u201d and religious extremism.<\/p>\n
Beijing often blames opposition to China\u2019s occupation of Xinjiang and repressive measures against its people to \u201creligious extremism.\u201d It regards the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a loosely defined group that advocates for Uighurs\u2019 rights and greater autonomy for its people, as a terrorist organization. It has had some success over the years in convincing other countries to place it on their list of \u201cproscribed terrorist organizations.\u201d The U.K. was the latest Western government to do so<\/a>.<\/p>\n The wave of teacher assignments represents a major escalation of the program, which began in 2000. Over the past decade, a total of 2,700 Uighur-speaking teachers \u2014 about 200 less than in the current round \u2014 were dispatched to high schools across inland China. As many as 234,000 students from Xinjiang have attended those schools in inland China so far.<\/p>\n Besides being \u201ccured\u201d of any \u201cseparatist\u201d sentiment they may have, the students from Xinjiang will receive guidance on how to adapt to their new lives in their new homes and given the information they need to get \u201ca better understanding of the central government\u2019s support of Xinjiang,\u201d the state-run Global Times<\/a><\/em> reports.<\/p>\n Whether this program will ensure long-term Uighur-language education to the students from Xinjiang or will instead serve as a conveyor belt to take Xinjiang\u2019s youth outside the territory in order to Sinicize them, remains to be seen. It is very likely that those who remain outside Xinjiang to pursue a higher education or find employment will have to do so in the Chinese language rather than Uighur, which could then serve as a means to dilute their identity and important linguistic link with Xinjiang.<\/p>\n A recent education program in Tibet, another restive region under Chinese occupation, gives some legitimacy to fears that bilingual education programs for ethnic minorities may simply be cover for the imposition of the Chinese language. According to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), in recent years the Chinese government implemented education programs in Tibet whose objective<\/a> is \u201cto replace Tibetan with Chinese as the main medium of instruction in Tibetan schools across Tibet.\u201d<\/p>\n