The Central News Agency reported (September 26) that former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj recently wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping to protest against the authorities’ push for the use of Chinese teaching materials in Inner Mongolia. Elbegdorj tweeted on September 25th that the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia returned the letter. Elbegdorj also posted a message on Facebook saying that he will not retract this letter to the Chinese leader and that this letter will attract more and more attention. In the content of the letter that Elbegdorj posted on his Twitter account, he mentioned that China’s Constitution stipulates that “all nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written language.” He pointed out that this is now flagrantly infringed upon with respect to the Mongolian children in Inner Mongolia. He also said, “I write to you (Xi Jinping) as I could not sit idle hearing that the tens and hundreds of thousands of Mongolians and their children that wish to exercise their rights that the Constitution has granted are experiencing indescribable anguish.” The Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui said that he noticed that Elbegdorj recently made remarks on the issue of bilingual education reform in Inner Mongolia. Chai Wenrui added that the views in his letter to the Chinese leader are completely wrong, and China does not accept them.

(Comment: Protests erupted in China's Nei Mongol Autonomous Region as the authorities replaced Mongolian with Mandarin as the primary language of study in schools throughout the AR. Mongolians have supported the people of the Nei Mongol AR. The protests prompted a high-level visit to the AR by the Minister of China's Ministry of Public Security, Zhao Kezhi. When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Mongolia around mid-September, more than one hundred demonstrators gathered in Sukhbaatar Square in front of the Mongolian Government Palace, shouting, “Defend our mother tongue” and “Wang Yi go away.”)