On September 1, the first day of the new school year, an estimated 300,000 Mongolian students across the Chinese-occupied Southern Mongolia refused to go to schools where Chinese will be the only language of instruction.

On the second day of the school strike, Chinese authorities issued multiple wanted posters seemingly for the Mongolian protesters who took part in protests in Tongliao Municipality and Hingaan League.

At least more than a hundred individuals have been listed as wanted on the Weixin site of the Public Security Bureau Horchin District Branch in Tongliao Municipality alone. Similar wanted posters with each individual’s photo and a description of their physical appearance have also been issued by the Public Security authorities of Horchin District, Zaruud Banner, Naiman Banner, Tongliao Development Zone, Horchin Left Wing Middle Banner and Horchin Left Wing Rear Banner.

The posters renounce the “suspects” as “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and offer a 1000 Yuan bounty for information leading to the apprehension of any “suspect”.

In the latest development, at least two Mongolian parents have reportedly died by suicide in protest of the authorities’ pressure to send their children to school. One is a mother and teacher from the Shuluun-huh Banner in Shilin-gol League. The other, a father whose wife is a teacher, was forced to send his child to school under tremendous pressure from the authorities in Tongliao Municipality.

Despite government pressure and police intimidation, an increasing number of Southern Mongolians are joining this region-wide noncooperation resistance movement. On September 2, the 300-plus Mongolian employees of Inner Mongolia Radio Station and Inner Mongolia TV Station, two official mouthpieces of the Chinese Communist Party, gathered to sign a joint statement to reject the new policy of “bilingual education.” According to audio statements published by some of these employees, the entire group is prepared to resign en masse if any of the ten employees who have been ordered to send their children to elementary or middle school lose their jobs for refusing to follow the order.

In solidarity with those in Southern Mongolia, people from all walks of life in the independent country of Mongolia, are joining the protest to urge the Chinese Government to withdraw the new policy that limits children’s language access.

An increasing number of demonstrations are being jointly organized by the citizens of Mongolia and Southern Mongolians in front of Chinese embassies and consulates in Mongolia, the United States, Japan and various European countries. In Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, a group of shamans gathered in the dark with a banner reading “China! Stop the ban of Mongolian language in Inner Mongolian schools.” They also performed a ritual to seek spiritual power from the Eternal Blue Sky to aid in the struggle of their Southern Mongolian brethren.

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