Chinese Language Courses to Be Introduced in All Schools in Russian Border Region

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 12 – Vasily Orlov, governor of Russia’s Amur region, says that this fall, all schools in Blavgoveshchenk, a city on the Russian-Chinese border, will have courses in Chinese, with some outlets suggesting that these courses will also open in other schools in the region and that they will be compulsory.

            For a selection of reports on Orlov’s statement, see priamurmedia.ru/news/1302512/, govoritmoskva.ru/news/320602/ and evening-kazan.ru/news/kitayskiy-yazyk-nachnut-prepodavat-vo-vseh-shkolah-blagoveshchenska-s-1-sentyabrya.html.

            The Russian governor said he was taking this step because of the opening of a bridge between Blagoveshchensk and the Chinese city of Heihe. Orlov noted that the Chinese city has five times more people than Blagoveshchensk but is only a fifth as large in area. He clearly expects an influx of Chinese in the coming months.

            Orlov’s new policy is politically explosive. In the short term, it will only exacerbate anger among non-Russians who have seen Putin eliminate the requirement that everyone living in their republic learn the language of the titular nationality. Now, they will see a Putin appointee making Chinese compulsory.

            And in the longer term, it will feed into widespread Russian fears that China  because of its enormous population is going to gradually absorb Russian regions east of the Urals, fears that many will see as justified in that Orlov, it is likely to appear to them, is already doing their bidding.

            For background on such fears and the belief many Russians have that Putin regime officials are working with China against them, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/12/main-separatist-region-in-russian.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/11/many-in-buryatia-transbaikal-fear.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/11/on-arctic-and-pacific-shelf-russia.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/10/illegal-russian-loggers-in-siberia-and.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-most-devastating-attacks-putin-has.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/04/russia-now-at-risk-of-losing-crimea.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-taz-what-chinese-assimilation-of.html).