China’s War on Tibetan Identity Begins with Children, Report Finds

Children Forcibly Placed in Boarding Schools Across Tibet

May 30, 2025

China is operating a vast network of “colonial” boarding schools across Tibet that forcibly removes children—including those as young as four—from their families, a new report released Wednesday claims. The report, published by the U.S.-based Tibet Action Institute, says the system is designed not for education access but for political assimilation, cutting children off from their language, culture and religion.

Tibet has been under Chinese control since the People’s Liberation Army entered the region in 1950. The Chinese government considers Tibet an integral part of its territory, while many Tibetans view the takeover as an occupation. In 1959, a failed uprising led to the Dalai Lama fleeing to India, where a government-in-exile was later established. Since then, Beijing has tightened its grip on the region, imposing strict surveillance, controlling religious institutions and limiting expressions of Tibetan identity.

International observers and rights groups have repeatedly accused China of suppressing cultural and religious freedoms in Tibet.

The advocacy group Tibet Action Institute, which is based out of Boston, Massachusetts, drew on firsthand accounts from inside Tibet and recent exiles to document how preschoolers from rural areas are separated from their parents and placed in government-run institutions where Chinese is the language of instruction, Tibetan classes are discouraged or banned and participation in religious or cultural life is prohibited—even during school holidays.

The report includes a case in which a father was forced to abandon his five-year-old son at a preschool in rural Tibet. To avoid an emotional outburst that could derail the enrolment, he told the teacher to lie to the child about his return. The teacher then locked the door while the father walked away as his son cried and tried to escape through the window. Similar accounts describe children being left at dormitories where beds are shared, hygiene is poor and the young are unable to care for themselves or even communicate with Chinese-speaking teachers.

Tibet Action Institute estimates that at least 100,000 children aged four to six are currently in boarding preschools across Tibetan areas. The figure adds to the nearly 900,000 Tibetan children aged six to 18 already known to be enrolled in similar residential schools, as revealed in the institute’s earlier 2021 report. In many cases, boarding is mandated even when the schools are located close to the children’s homes, suggesting that proximity or access is not the reason behind the policy.

In Lhasa, for instance, fifth to seventh grade students used to live at home and attend local schools. But new rules now require them to board at a sprawling complex called “Education City” on the city’s outskirts. A theoretical reversal of this requirement—on paper—now allows children to return home at night. However, with daily attendance required from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., most children continue to live on campus.

The scale and structure of these institutions remain largely undocumented in Chinese state media, according to the report. Boarding preschools often share facilities or names with elementary schools, making it difficult to identify or track them.

For example, a school in Medrogongkar County was listed only as a primary school in public databases, but photos from Chinese media and online diaries confirmed that it included a bilingual boarding kindergarten.

A diary, written by a Chinese university intern teaching at a boarding preschool in Kanlho, Gansu Province, describes a tightly scheduled daily routine. Children were collected at 8 a.m., taught lessons, fed lunch, made to nap with their heads on desks and eventually taken to dormitories after 8:30 p.m. Some beds were shared by two or three children, with sheepskins serving as mattresses. Photos show children asleep with mucus on their faces. The intern noted that most children stayed on campus from Sunday to Friday and rarely saw their families.

The Chinese government argues that the boarding school system is necessary to provide education to children in remote areas and frames the policy as a tool for development and poverty alleviation. However, the report challenges this justification by citing a 2023 Chinese study that found 87% of children in the Tibet Autonomous Region live within an hour of a primary school. The study recommended expanding local school access and using buses instead of requiring boarding.

In addition to being separated from their families, children in these schools are taught almost entirely in Chinese, with only token or poorly delivered Tibetan language instruction. They are also prevented from engaging in religious activities. In some regions, authorities have gone door to door to enforce bans on students attending Tibetan language classes or visiting monasteries during school holidays. Parents have been required to sign pledges promising that their children would not engage in any such activities.

In Yushul, Qinghai Province, a government school issued a letter stating that educating minors not to believe in religion is an obligation for both schools and parents. It added that preventing children from entering religious spaces was essential to the long-term stability of the “motherland.”

Tibet Action Institute says these policies contradict China’s own laws.

The Chinese Constitution guarantees ethnic minorities the right to use and develop their languages and preserve their customs. The Law on the Protection of Minors prohibits corporal punishment and mandates respect for children’s dignity.

The report also cites violations of international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

China has so far dismissed these criticisms as politically motivated and part of a Western campaign to destabilise its governance.

India is home to the largest Tibetan exile community in the world, with an estimated 85,000 to 100,000 refugees spread across settlements in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and other states. The settlements have their own schools, monasteries and administrative bodies under the Central Tibetan Administration, based in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.

Strategically, the systematic erasure of Tibetan identity near India’s borders could destabilise a historically sensitive region and intensify Beijing’s control over areas adjacent to Arunachal Pradesh, which China also claims.

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