China: Rights Group Warns New Regulations Could Marginalise Uyghur Language in Education and Public Institutions

China: Rights Group Warns New Regulations Could Marginalise Uyghur Language in Education and Public Institutions
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The Uyghur Rights Observatory has warned that amended language regulations approved by Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang region, known to Uyghurs as East Turkestan, could further marginalise the Uyghur language and reduce its presence in educational, administrative and media institutions.

In an analysis published on November 6, 2026, the observatory said the new regulations were approved on September 23 and are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027. Although the amendments do not explicitly ban the Uyghur language, they give institutional priority to Mandarin Chinese while removing previous guarantees supporting the use of Uyghur alongside Chinese in official affairs and administrative procedures.

In the education sector, the organisation warned that the regulations establish Mandarin as the primary language of instruction and strengthen its teaching from the preschool stage, without retaining previous safeguards for parallel bilingual education.

The changes also extend to public signage, media production and translation, granting Chinese priority in display position and font size while introducing additional requirements for cultural and media content produced in minority languages.

The observatory cautioned that these measures could weaken the presence of Uyghur in schools, public institutions and cultural production, potentially affecting younger generations’ ability to learn their mother tongue and preserve their linguistic and cultural identity.

It stressed that the continued use of Uyghur within families alone would not guarantee its survival as a language of public life, warning that declining institutional use could threaten its transmission between generations.

The organisation emphasised that these concerns represent its assessment of the potential consequences of the regulations ahead of their implementation, rather than an announcement of a comprehensive ban on the Uyghur language.