China to Drop Tibetan as Core Subject in University Entrance Exams, Sparking Fears of Cultural Erasure
09 August 2025 | The Economic Times
Beijing's push to intensify Sinicization across the Tibetan Plateau has taken a significant step forward, with the Communist Party of China's top Tibetan leader announcing that the Tibetan language will no longer be a core subject in the region's national college entrance examination for most students, Tibetan Review reported on August 7, citing the Financial Times.
Gama Cedain, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government and the region's deputy party secretary, told a press briefing in Beijing this week that the decision was part of reforms to the gaokao, China's highly competitive national examination, and would, in his words, "improve Tibetans' career prospects." The announcement comes amid President Xi Jinping's Han-centric assimilation policies, which exile Tibetans and rights groups see as an attempt to erase the region's linguistic and cultural identity, Tibetan Review noted…