On July 29, an “official” from the “government-in-exile” claimed that the “self-immolations were resulted from the hardline language policy of the Chinese government in Tibet stressing only Chinese teaching in schools” at the Dalai Lama’s 77-year-old birthday celebration in Taiwan.

Here I’d like to ask why a simple language issue could incur loss of life. And what is wrong for ethnic Tibetans to learn Chinese? Obviously, it was an attempt of the Dalai clique to blemish the Chinese government, which is both unfair and groundless.

As a matter of fact, Tibetan learning is always guaranteed by law in China. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Law on Ethnic Regional Autonomy both clearly prescribe that all ethnic minorities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. In 2005, the Stipulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region for the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language was promulgated and implemented in Tibet.

Losang Thume, who has been engaged in research on Tibetan language for 12 years said, the Tibetan language is booming now. But in the old Tibet, it had never been popularized as it is today. Tibetan courses are offered in schools of all sorts and at different levels. In particular, Tibetan is the main language to use in primary schools of pastoral areas and townships. And the senior high school or college entrance examinations must be taken in Tibetan for Tibetan language courses, and scores must be reported in the transcripts. Besides, all courses of Tibetan literature and Tibetan medicine are taught in Tibetan in universities, in which doctoral degrees can be conferred.

Since 2003, Tibet has implemented the long-distance teaching program under the support of the Ministry of Education, State Commission of Development and Reform, and Ministry of Finance. Almost all 1,400 middle and primary schools in Tibet could receive the TV programs, some even through the satellite equipment as well as DVDs of Tibetan language teaching materials.

In addition, the training programs for Tibetans provided by the government have help local Tibetans to master their mother tongue. As a result, the illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged people has dropped from 30 percent in 2003 to 1.2 percent in 2011.

I hereby want to ask the “official”, is it the right thing for ethnic Tibetans to learn only Tibetan in the modern world?

As one of the 56 ethnic groups in China, Tibetan language and culture have interacted with those of the Han and other ethnic groups. In fact, now many Tibetans would like their younger generations to learn Chinese.

Dzamla, a mother of six living in Maqu County, Gansu Province, said she often told her children to study Mandarin in order to find good jobs.

A primary school principal in Lhasa said, “Tibetan students must grasp both Tibetan and Chinese because they should learn modern technology apart from keeping their traditional culture.”

"Tibetans need to learn Chinese in order to better communicate with the outside world. Learning Mandarin will not undermine Tibetan, instead it will enrich the Tibetan language. As early as the 7th century, literatures on inland science, medicine, religion and politics had all been translated into Tibetan, which have contributed a great deal to the development of Tibetan language and culture, said Gonchekya, a researcher with the Academy of Social Sciences in Tibet Autonomous Region.

In this sense, learning Chinese has become a prerequisite for the Tibetan economic and social progress just as learning English is so important for Chinese, which symbolizes people’s desire to strive for modernization and a better livelihood. But has the “English learning fervor” destroyed the Chinese culture?

Yet Tibetan language not only should be passed down, but also developed in the modern era. So are the teaching methods of Tibetan language. Due to lack of teaching materials of science subjects, the Chinese government has provided a lot of support in funds and talents for the research program. Thanks to its efforts, bilingual textbooks of math from Grade One to Grade Three have been compiled and put into use in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Furthermore, the Tibetan language should also be developed with the times. Since 1980s and 1990s, the Tibetan information processing technology has made a breakthrough. For example, Tibetan software such as the word processing and digital editing, type-setting and printing systems were invented and applied. After the 21st century, the Chinese government fulfilled the task of standardizing the coding of Tibetan, and launching Tibetan websites.

Well, has it ever happened that the language of some small ethnic group was lost? Yes, it did happen in history.

Since the colonists stepped onto the North American land in the 14th century, the number of American Indians was sharply reduced within several hundred years. Its culture and language had been extinguished, and only a few people can speak their native language at the present time. Most of them are bilingual, if say, they can speak the language. By contrast, Tibetan has not been destroyed, instead, it has flourished.

It is understandable for Tibetans to have a sense of crisis in terms of their language and cultural identity because there is a small population of Tibetans, but a big population of Hans, according to a Chinese scholar. But Tibetans are more longing for development.

Just as a Tibetan scholar said:“An ethnic group will be left deserted and in oblivion if it is backward in culture, education and science.”

As a matter of fact, many countries in the world have the problem of protecting the languages of their ethnic minorities. The Chinese government has made a role model for them in the policies it has made and measures it has taken.

Given the above, the language issue should only be discussed in the context of development, but not in the context of “cultural extinction” and “clashes between ethnic groups”. However, the Dalai clique attempted to use this issue to deceive the innocent young Tibetans and monks to sacrifice their valuable lives. What they schemed is to draw the attention of the world community by force and prevent the “Tibet issue” from being marginalized in order to realize the “Tibet independence” and "separating Tibet from China”.

However, truth does not exist in the defamed reality. And the lies of the Dalai clique will not hold water.