1981 Inner Mongolia student protest

The 1981 Inner Mongolia student protest, which took place in Inner Mongolia from 22 August to 15 November 1981, opposed a package of new policies that would worsen steppe degradation in the Inner Mongolia steppe and worsen the political representation of Chinese Mongols.^[1] The new policies included "we shall have 100 million cattle within the next decade", "the influx of rural-to-urban migrants [zh] from neighboring provinces shall be settled rather than be blocked" and "placing Mongol officials in place in Mongol-majority settlements and Han officials in place in Han-majority settlements".^[2] The protest were mostly organized by the students of Inner Mongolia University. The policies were proposed by then Inner Mongolia Chief party secretary Zhou Hui and sanctioned by the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party at its meeting on 16 July 1981, chaired by then top party secretary Hu Yaobang.^[2]

Hu, known for his restraint approach towards students, ordered Zhou Hui to not arrest any students. As promised, the students were left unscathed, but many bureaucrats, school headmasters and teachers were demoted.^[1]

See also

• 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, also handled by Hu Yaobang
• 2020 Inner Mongolia protests, on bilingual education policy
• Migration in China
• Grassland degradation
• Racism in China

References

1. Jankowiak, William R. (1988). "The Last Hurrah? Political Protest in Inner Mongolia". The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs (19/20). The University of Chicago Press: 269–288. doi:10.2307/2158548. JSTOR 2158548. S2CID 156352814.
2. "中共中央关于转发《中央书记处讨论内蒙古自治区工作纪要》的通知，中发［1981］28号". The Chinese Cultural Revolution Database. 1981-08-03. Archived from the original on 2016-08-27.