2020 Inner Mongolia protests
[9] The 1981 Inner Mongolia student protest opposed a package of new policies which worsened steppe degradation and the political representation of Chinese Mongols.
[16][17][18] The majority of Mongols, and almost all Hans, opt to send their children to schools taught in Standard Mandarin, in recognition of the economic opportunities that would reap.
[7][8] Xi Jinping "rejects the old Soviet-based system, which allowed relative autonomy and preservation of language and culture in designated regions, in favor of the new approach".
[23] The protesters considered this as an attempt by the Chinese government to curb them from learning the Mongolian language and to disconnect them from their nomadic background.
[4] In a similar case in Tongliao, a prefecture of Inner Mongolia, parents found out about the announcement only after sending their kids to a boarding school, which led to the protests.
[24] On 1 September, staff at a school in Naiman county told the BBC that only around 40 students had registered for the semester, in place of the usual 1,000.
[25] Chinese state media, like Xinhua News Agency and China Daily, largely ignored the protests and its demands at first, instead focusing on the planned festivals held in Inner Mongolia, to the social life of ethnic Mongols.
[4] In early September, State Councilor and police minister Zhao Kezhi visited the region to strengthen the fight against “terrorism and separatism” during a tour to parts of the province.
[31] At the same time, the Chinese police force had been deployed and increased its activities across Inner Mongolia, with a number of people arrested for supporting the protests.
[33] On 13 September, some counties' governments required guardians to send their children to school or they would be fined for up to 5000 yuan in response to the student strike.
[34] On 1 December, reports said that the Chinese government is mass recruiting secondary school teachers to work in the northern region of Inner Mongolia.
[25] Dozens of Mongolian protesters marched to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Ulaanbaatar and demanded a reaction against ongoing repression of Mongol rights in China.
[38] The same month, an international petition and movement by ethnic Mongols, “Save the Mongolian Language in Southern \Inner\ Mongolia,” was started.
[25] On 24 and 25 November, hundreds of Mongolians living in Japan protested outside the National Assembly in Tokyo, calling on the Chinese Communist Party not to end Mongolian-medium education in Inner Mongolia.
