On the orders of the Chinese government, the allowed-in-China version of TikTok, Douyin, is now banning posts in the Tibetan language and deleting posts in that language.
The report on Phayul does not make clear whether China’s other social media platforms must also implement the prohibition.
Cultural genocide
If not, though, it’s probably only a matter of time, since the Douyin ban “is part of a wider pattern of suppression and delegitimisation of the native language in Tibet. Over the years, the Chinese government has implemented various policies aimed at diminishing Tibetan cultural practices, including restrictions on religious freedom and language [and] promotion of Mandarin over Tibetan in schools” (“Tibetans express anguish over China’s ban of Tibetan language on Douyin,” Phayul Newsdesk, July 9, 2024).
Victims of the ban are confounded.
One Tibetan points out, on Twitter, that “the state’s policies explicitly grant protection for cultural preservation and language promotion, a mandate supported by both the legal system and the government.”
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy agrees, saying that the ban is “a flagrant violation of provisions enshrined in Chinese constitution as well as Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, which promised but [has] rarely granted meaningful autonomous powers to ethnic minorities including Tibetans.”
If the law says one thing but the government does another, it’s the government, not the law, which has “rarely granted” actual autonomy. But was the Chinese government’s apparent granting by law of autonomy to ethnic minorities ever anything but a mask of real purpose? The word “enshrined” may not be accurate.
Yes but
One can perhaps find within “the state’s policies” verbal support for every right articulated by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. But China is a totalitarian dictatorship, and propagandistic bogus assertions about protection of “freedom of speech” and other rights are invariably attended by the implicit or explicit proviso “unless you say or do something that the state prohibits.”
Another Tibetan asks: “I am a native Tibetan speaker and cannot speak perfect Chinese. Why am I not allowed to post in my native language?”
Answer: one mission of the Borg Chinese Communist Party government is to assimilate you and/or wipe out your culture, and the CCP doesn’t care about your rights or whether it is making your life harder.
