I'm Basque, we are "forced" to learn Spanish too since it's a co-official language in out autonomous region of Spain.

This post might sound alarming to monolingual people, but for any multilingual that had to learn both official languages AND english, watching people complain about schools requiring extra languages is embarrassing.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the post, it doesn't imply that most lectures need to be in Mandarin, only that the kids need to be taught the language, right?

Edit: I read the post. The language thing doesn't matter, what's alarming is actually this:

The law also provides a legal basis to prosecute parents or guardians who may instil what it described as "detrimental" views in children which would affect ethnic harmony and it calls for "mutually embedded community environments".

If it were actually about language and communication, that bit wouldn't be there.

Watch as Americans without a shred of irony decry this and then demand people in our country speak English.

See, China's peacefulness and benevolence are on full display providing conquered peoples free education, and re-education!

Slow genocide.

Can we please stop with the scare quotes around terms that don’t have the same connotation in their original language? The BBC is deliberately misleading its readers by translating 民族团结 to mean “ethnic unity”. A better translation in this case would be “national solidarity” but that wouldn’t sound as scary would it?

It’s also not unreasonable for a country to require schools to teach children the common language. Knowing 普通话 (the common language) is a critical skill for any Chinese national who wants to succeed in the modern Chinese economy. Almost every state with a national language does this in some way.

Instead of falling for deliberate mistranslations, maybe look up what was actually said in Mandarin next time.

There's no way to define "ethnic unity" that doesn't involve racism and ethnic genocide.

Don't the US, Canada, and Australia have similar laws? Kinda crazy China took so long to stoop to our level

EDIT: I have since learned that public schools in the US are not required to teach in English, so you can cross the US off that list! My bad!

EDIT2: I just googled it, and it turns out it is required. Back on the list it goes!

EDIT3: I've had to explain multiple times in the comments that I'm not talking about teaching immigrants the local language, but teaching the native population the language of the colonizers. The US, Canada, Australia all arrived somewhere where there were already people, like Polynesians, Inuits, and Aboriginals, and in their public school, they're all taught in English. It's disheartening to see how little people think of the native population of these countries, and it shows how effective the native American genocide was.

But when Spain or France does the same to its own minorities nobody cares

The same people who scream “speak American” will have a problem with this.

Garbage journalism from the BBC. They provide no link to the primary source i.e. the text of the law: Ethnic Unity and Progress Law

Yeah, I have huge doubt that this law won't be used to crush any cultural diversity to make a mono culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system

Despite current views that might define the system of residential schools as racist or genocidal, many scholars contend that they were seen as progressive at the time, a form of state intervention.

The school system was created as a civilizing mission to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own culture and religion in order to assimilate them into the dominant Euro-Canadian culture.

During their stay many students were forced to assimilate to Euro-Canadian culture, losing their Indigenous identities and struggling to fit into both their own communities as well as Canadian society.

These acts assumed the inherent superiority of French and British ways, and the need for Indigenous peoples to become French or English speakers, Christians, and farmers.

In 1894, amendments to the Indian Act made attendance at a day school, if there was a day school on the reserve on which the child resided, compulsory for status Indian children between 7 and 16 years of age. The changes included a series of exemptions regarding school location, the health of the children and their prior completion of school examinations.[

The introduction of the Family Allowance Act in 1945 stipulated that school-aged children had to be enrolled in school for families to qualify for the "baby bonus", further coercing Indigenous parents into having their children attend.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission list three reasons behind the federal government's decision to establish residential schools.

• Provide Aboriginal people with skills to participate in a market-based economy.
• Further political assimilation, in hope that educated students would give up their status and not return to their reserves or families.
• Schools were "engines of cultural and spiritual change" where "'savages' were to emerge as Christian 'white men'".

I assumed this was always the case in China, didn't they create mandarin with the sole purpose of making everyone learn it

All country force a main formal language, the fact that China didn't do it until now is actually interesting.

Actually don't have a problem with this. I think all countries should have one primary language that is used across the entire country and that everyone in the country knows the language.

No, I'm not saying you should suppress the native languages or do things like only allow that language to be used in government offices, but for schooling and general communication, I think it's best if everyone in the country is using one language. That helps keep everyone linked culturally, which is a crucial part of having a unified country.