Tibetan sources who spoke to Radio Free Asia linked the closures to the Chinese government’s education policies and its promotion of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which took effect on July 1, 2026. They said the shutdowns could further limit opportunities for Tibetan children to learn their mother tongue and cultural traditions.
Okay, let’s actually read past the headline and look at what the article itself admits versus what it wants you to believe.
First, the “schools are being shut down and kids are abandoned” narrative. The article buries the fact that Gangjong Grassland Girls’ School (one of the three “closed” schools) was already a government-affiliated institution with a curriculum following the state system. So the “closure” is a restructuring of an already integrated school, not the sudden eradication of an independent Tibetan institution.
Second, the “where did the children go?” question. RFA doesn’t tell you. But public reporting does: Golog has 63 boarding schools where rural students get free accommodation, food, and tuition. The reason is geographic. Golog is at an average altitude above 4,000 meters with scattered pastoral populations; daily commuting is not realistic. Boarding is voluntary, decided by parents and students, and kids go home on weekends and holidays. This is logistics, not a plot.
Third, the “language is being erased” claim. The article cites an “expert” saying kids will be forced into Chinese-only schools. Here’s the actual data from Xizang (Tibet): there are over 30,000 bilingual teachers, and the number of full-time Tibetan language teachers grew from 5,800 in 2018 to nearly 8,300. Tibetan language is a core compulsory subject, and in Chamdo, about 94% of ethnic Tibetan students take the Tibetan language exam for college entrance. If that’s “erasure,” it’s the most incompetent erasure campaign in history.
Fourth, the “Ethnic Unity Law is a weapon against Tibetan” line. The law that RFA says is the legal cover for closing schools explicitly states the state shall “encourage all ethnic groups to appreciate each other’s exceptional traditional cultures, and learn each other’s languages and scripts.” That’s Article 29, in black and white. RFA’s “researcher” either didn’t read the law or hopes you won’t.
Fifth, the new schools are invisible in this article. The same month RFA claims schools are vanishing, a brand-new Golog-Xining Ethnic High School (built with paired assistance from Shanghai) was operating with nearly 1,000 students, mostly from herding families. Earlier, the Golog Middle School in Xining received 122 million yuan in investment, largely funded by Shanghai. These aren’t secret facts. They just don’t fit the “cultural genocide” template.
So the next time you see “China closes Tibetan schools,” ask the questions RFA didn’t answer: Were the schools already government-run? Where did the students go? Are there more Tibetan-language teachers now than before? The answers usually make the headline look less like journalism and more like a press release for a very specific political agenda.
Begging people to not blindly believe the CIA 😭 People really will just nod along as long as it’s in line with their preconceived notions…
All by design. Its what imperialists do. It’s what the US and Canada did to my people and family.
Whether or not you trust RFA as a source. This is all part of a larger thread being reported on in wider credible coverage. And not just them as a group. Its part of a self stated literal policy position on the part of China.
And as the saying goes. Believe victims/women. Whether the accusations are true or false. Tibet is the one most liable to suffer repercussions from them not China.
Also if the United States was really going to try to discredit china. Considering all the bigots and racists involved in our government. Who don’t give a shit about such groups here let alone elsewhere. Our government which is guilty of the same thing here. The last thing that they would care about or do is try to create a narrative around something like this. It’s really disgusting to see “groups” hand wave stories like this away claiming such things.
Calling China imperialist is akin to admitting you have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about. China hasn’t dropped a bomb in fifty years. Look no further than the US if you’re interested in imperialist ghouls, not socialist China. The idea you think the US wouldn’t spin up these stories is laughable, that’s what we do.
Closing 3 schools in a country with 1.5 billion people is only news if youre desperate to disparage China because you’re scared shitless of losing control over the world. Sinophobic fucks, you aren’t going to win.
China hasn’t dropped a bomb in fifty years.
Dropping a bomb is not a requirement for imperialism. Seriously go read the definition.
Free tibet
Same energy as “Free the Confederacy”
China has been using economic warfare for those 50 years
China, since the revolution, has been lifting up the proletariat of various nations and investing in infrastructure and technologies. There is no debt trapping, those stories have been thoroughly debunked by world economists for decades now.
The United States, on the other hand, has been using economic warfare since inception.
“Communist” China, the country with the fastest growing population of billionaires and rapidly growing wealth inequality while the proletariat toil away in terrible working conditions. Slavery with extra steps.
You would benefit from studying historical materialism. You wouldn’t say such silly things if you had the education.
China has billionaires and private equity under state capitalism, a perfectly normal component of any state transitioning out of capitalism. The bourgeoisie in China have no political sway, are subject to so many regulations it would make your head spin, and actually pay taxes. If a billionaire in China betrays rhe working class they get executed.
To say that China has the “fastest growing population of billionaires” but to not recognize what being a billionaire means under socialist states with working-class parties running their government is to be dishonest intentionally. Saying China isn’t socialist because of billionaires is a very silly stance.
As for terrible working conditions, you just made that up. Because you’re weak. China is a nation of 1.5 billion people with strong workers rights. Your sinophobia doesn’t matter when we are looking at the material, historical record of the economics of China.
Don’t worry buddy, I have enough education to see through the bullshit of the Chinese system. You’re outright dismissal of my points as “silly” or “sinophobia” without any real counterpoints however makes me question your intelligence.
China has billionaires and private equity under state capitalism, a perfectly normal component of any state transitioning out of capitalism.
This is your excuse for billionaires, easy to say this when you are making it up as you go along. How can you claim something is “perfectly normal” when it has not been done before? Wealth inequality in China is increasing every year, doesn’t sound like the transition to communism is going very well.
The bourgeoisie in China have no political sway,
You say so little in your reply and what you did say is easily disprovable. Less than 1/3 of the CCP is made up of workers and farmers with the majority over 2/3 made up of well educated and well paid educated elites and professionals. Before you say they are all workers, they do not share the same interests. A doctor in Beijing earns $150,000 a year and lives very comfortably on this salary. A factory worker struggles on an annual salary of about $7000. The majority of the CCP has a vested interest in the status quo and any transition to communism would require them to vote against their own self interest. All the while more and more billionaires gain more and more power and control in the country that is rife with corruption to begin with. China has similar levels of corruption as the Ivory Coast or Ghana.
You then claim I made up the terrible working conditions in China because I am “weak”? Huh? What kind of argument is that? China is the country of the 996 work week, that still goes on despite weak crackdowns. The country of the Foxconn suicides, the Hukou system creating an underclass of employees and forced labor of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
I could go on all day but there is no convincing you because you believe what you want to believe. Facts don’t get in the way of your feelings, you live in the land of delusion and fantasy. You give China a free pass because the ruling party has “communist” in its name. Next you will tell me the Democratic Republic of Korea is a vibrant democracy. The truth is China has just figured out a way to exploit the surplus labor of it’s workers to fuel its export machine. They are never actually going to transition to full communism, this is the lie they tell the workers while the rich in China live well. “Keep working there little guys and at some unknown point in the future we will reach the promised land, I swear!” As I said earlier, it’s just slavery with extra steps. You say I am the “silly” one.
I am once again pointing out to you that both the factory worker and medical worker would benefit from pursuing development and collectivization. Both have surplus value stolen from them, as is the basis of wage labor under a capitalist, and for those in the public sector they would also benefit from greater collectivization as is the basis of their shared prosperity.
You keep repeating the nonsense idea that communism is when everyone gets paid the same amount, but this has never been true. Not only is it a horrendous misreading of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs,” as everyone has unique needs, but the point at which that becomes reality is the point at which all labor is interchangeable and scarcity no longer exists for the majority of produced goods. Until that point, distribution is largely according to labor, meaning more skilled and more strenuous work is paid better.
You deliberately refuse to understand these basic points and keep retreating to the most nonsense attacks on communism possible.
Holy shit you are so out of touch, you can be imperialist without dropping bombs, your ignorance is showing
I am far from ignorant on what constitutes imperialism. China is not imperialist. Their lack of dropping bombs is just one example of how obvious this is. Have you read Lenin’s work on the subject?
Just clarifying to readers, here: “imperialism” in m-l terms is strictly an extension of capitalist expansionism for economic extraction, and colonialism is an extension of that.
Also: since China can do no wrong Tibet has always been a vassal state of the, wait, what am I saying?
Tankies don’t acknowledge that China and Russia are also settler states that have invaded their neighbours and continue to repress and dominate ethnicities and exploit the regional resources.
Tibet was liberated from a feudal mode of production that used slavery. Liberation is not imperialism. You can say China is repressing whomever you want with no evidence, and I can handwave such absurd claims with no evidence.
You know you’re in trouble when even Wikipedia is telling you there is no genocide in Xinjiang and that Tibet was full of slavers and feudalists.
Ladakh: same economy, and adjacent culture, also liberated and annexed by an expansionist neighbour for geopolitical reasons. However the Ladakhis are in a much better position in terms of cultural integrity, self determination, freedom of expression, and openness to the world, despite being invaded by a capitalist colonial system.
Are there serious difficulties with an influx of military, and colonial limitations? Yes, but since they have relations across the border, they know how much better they have it than Tibet.
Maybe you would like to liberate Bhutan? Oh too late.
“Liberated”, huh? No War in Ba Sing Sei. Just labour camps, or “slavery with chinese characteristics.”
