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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50302535

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A new United Nations report has issued one of the clearest warnings to date that Chinese state policies in Tibet are actively eroding the foundations of Tibetan civilisation, threatening the survival of Tibetans as a distinct people.

The findings appear in a report to the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Nicolas Levrat. While global in scope, the report explicitly identifies Tibet as a case where state-led policies are not merely discriminatory but constitute what the UN expert describes as “eradication in more subtle ways.”

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At the centre of this warning is China’s vast boarding school system imposed on Tibetan children. The report states unequivocally that “the boarding school education system implemented by China in Tibet is aimed at erasing the Tibetan language and identity.” Tibetan children are separated from their families and communities and educated in environments where Mandarin Chinese, state ideology, and cultural assimilation dominate daily life. According to the report, this policy prevents “the intergenerational transmission of cultural, linguistic or religious elements of minorities’ identities,” a process that leads to “the extinction of the minority as a distinct group in the State population.”

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The Special Rapporteur makes clear that eradication does not require mass killing to meet the threshold of grave human rights violations.

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These policies are not isolated, but part of a broader political project. The report notes that China has “since 2012 undertaken a nation-building process” that has resulted in “the marginalisation of minority communities,” leading to “forms of severe discrimination against non-Han minorities, such as Tibetans.” Despite constitutional guarantees of regional autonomy, the report finds that in practice Tibetan identity is being subordinated to a single state-defined national identity.

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