I mean I know western media outlets never tried to hide their bias, but this is like bingo night. Let's see how many hits we get:
Use of the word sweeping:
"China has approved a sweeping new law which claims to help promote "ethnic unity" - but critics say it will further erode the rights of minority groups."
Use of the word rubber-stamp:
"The law was approved on Thursday as the annual rubber-stamp parliamentary session drew to an end."
So-called expert using emotionally charged language:
"The law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift, to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognised since 1949," Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University said in a university report.
"The children of the next generation are now isolated and brutally forced to forget their own language and culture."
Again use of absolute language:
"The law was voted and passed on Thursday at the National People's Congress in Beijing, which has never rejected an item on its agenda."
Suspicious anonymous monk quotes:
When the BBC visited a monastery that had been at heart of Tibetan resistance in July last year, monks spoke of living under fear and intimidation.
"We Tibetans are denied basic human rights. The Chinese government continues to oppress and persecute us. It is not a government that serves the people," one of them told us.
Again some no-name "professor of government", lmao i mean truly bottom of the barrel:
"The Communist Party says it embraces different ethnicities. The country's constitution states that "each ethnicity has the right to use and develop their own language" and "have the right to self-rule".
But critics believe this new law will cement Xi's push toward assimilation.
"The law makes it clearer than ever that in Xi Jinping's PRC non-Han peoples must do more to integrate themselves with the Han majority, and above all else be loyal to Beijing," Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University said, referencing China by the initials of its official name.
I personally think having a common national language is crucial provided it comes from the right place. That is, not as a tool for the erasure of non-dominant cultural identities. Regardless of how it is being done I am certain the crackerverse will see it as such anyway.
India has a real problem in this regard. The national language is supposed to be Hindi. But non-Hindi states oppose the adoption of Hindi because historically it was viewed as an imposition by the Congress government which was dominated by high-caste Hindus from the north. Then English is a language of great import because it is economically significant. So in non-Hindi states, the way things are, kids will need to learn three languages (regional, Hindi and English). The current education policy states (from wikipedia):
This is only a guideline because it is not being inplemented anywhere since teaching kids three languages is straight up unfeasible.
So if China could make Mandarin plus regional the curriculum, it would be easier to implement and it would give regional languages a lot more breathing room.