Seminar on Boarding Education in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on October 27, 2025
DHARAMSHALA Oct 30 2025 – In a renewed push to defend its controversial boarding school system in Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party organized an “International Academic Symposium on Boarding Education and Plateau Development” at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu on October 27. The event brought together academics from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada in what observers describe as an attempt to legitimize Beijing’s assimilationist education policies in Tibet.
Chinese state media portrayed the symposium as a platform highlighting “equity and high quality education” for children in the plateau regions. Reports claimed the boarding schools respect ethnic culture while providing better educational opportunities for Tibetan children through state support.
Speakers at the event, including researchers and pro Beijing commentators, defended the system. Zhalo from the China Tibetology Research Center said the schools contribute to educational progress, while Mario Cavolo of the Center for China and Globalization dismissed global criticism as “nonsense.” Another participant, Michael Alan Crook, claimed that the schools promote “mutual understanding” between ethnic groups and offer good living conditions.
However, Tibetan rights organizations and international experts have denounced the symposium as propaganda meant to whitewash human rights abuses. According to the Tibet Action Institute’s 2025 report When They Came to Take Our Children, China’s colonial boarding school system forcibly separates children as young as four from their families, subjects them to political indoctrination, and erases their Tibetan language and culture.
TAI’s earlier 2021 report revealed that nearly one million Tibetan children have been compelled to attend such institutions under policies designed to weaken their cultural identity and loyalty to Tibet.
While Beijing promotes these schools as symbols of progress and modernization, human rights groups emphasize that the true intent lies in reshaping Tibetan identity to align with Chinese nationalism.
The United Nations has also raised alarms over these practices. In February 2023, UN Special Rapporteurs warned that around one million Tibetan children are being subjected to forced assimilation through residential schools where the education is dominated by Han Chinese language and culture.
Rights advocates argue that China’s ongoing efforts represent a systematic campaign to erase Tibetan identity under the pretext of education and development.