In illegally occupied Tibet, China is separating children from their families in boarding schools for the purposes of indoctrination in communism, to make them think of themselves as “Chinese” instead of Tibetan, and for the purpose of severing their attachment to Buddhist culture. From the Tibet Action Institute report:
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Tibet’s education system has become primarily residential; official data shows that approximately 800,000 Tibetan children aged six to 18 – 78% of Tibetan students – are living in colonial boarding schools;
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Tibetan parents are compelled to send their children to boarding schools due to a lack of alternatives and are unable to advocate for other options in Tibet’s repressive environment. Individual accounts show that intimidation and threats are used to coerce reluctant parents to send their children to such schools;
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Students are at risk of losing their mother tongue and connection to their cultural identity because: 1) classes are primarily taught in Chinese;2) they live apart from their families and communities and are, therefore, unable to practice their religion or access the most authentic expressions of Tibetan culture and traditions; and 3) they are subjected to a highly politicized curriculum intended to make them identify as Chinese;
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China’s boarding school policy is discriminatory in that it targets Tibetans and other “ethnic minorities,” while the rate of Chinese students in boarding schools is dramatically lower, even in rural areas;
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Researchers have shown Tibetan boarding school students to be experiencing great emotional and psychological distress, including extreme feelings of loneliness and isolation, as a result of being separated from their families, communities, and culture.
Read the whole report. This is naked cultural genocide.
The time has come to disengage financially from China until it ameliorates its many wrong and immoral policies.
We should also boycott the Olympics. Not the diluted “diplomatic” protest announced by President Biden but a complete refusal to participate, starting with our athletes. And this one is easy: None of us should watch the Olympics. The tyrants of China care a lot about “face.” If there are no ratings, it will send a salutory message that we reject the CCP’s “Fourth Reich” policies.