Okay, let’s actually read past the headline and look at what the article itself admits versus what it wants you to believe.

First, the “schools are being shut down and kids are abandoned” narrative. The article buries the fact that Gangjong Grassland Girls’ School (one of the three “closed” schools) was already a government-affiliated institution with a curriculum following the state system. So the “closure” is a restructuring of an already integrated school, not the sudden eradication of an independent Tibetan institution.

Second, the “where did the children go?” question. RFA doesn’t tell you. But public reporting does: Golog has 63 boarding schools where rural students get free accommodation, food, and tuition. The reason is geographic. Golog is at an average altitude above 4,000 meters with scattered pastoral populations; daily commuting is not realistic. Boarding is voluntary, decided by parents and students, and kids go home on weekends and holidays. This is logistics, not a plot.

Third, the “language is being erased” claim. The article cites an “expert” saying kids will be forced into Chinese-only schools. Here’s the actual data from Xizang (Tibet): there are over 30,000 bilingual teachers, and the number of full-time Tibetan language teachers grew from 5,800 in 2018 to nearly 8,300. Tibetan language is a core compulsory subject, and in Chamdo, about 94% of ethnic Tibetan students take the Tibetan language exam for college entrance. If that’s “erasure,” it’s the most incompetent erasure campaign in history.

Fourth, the “Ethnic Unity Law is a weapon against Tibetan” line. The law that RFA says is the legal cover for closing schools explicitly states the state shall “encourage all ethnic groups to appreciate each other’s exceptional traditional cultures, and learn each other’s languages and scripts.” That’s Article 29, in black and white. RFA’s “researcher” either didn’t read the law or hopes you won’t.

Fifth, the new schools are invisible in this article. The same month RFA claims schools are vanishing, a brand-new Golog-Xining Ethnic High School (built with paired assistance from Shanghai) was operating with nearly 1,000 students, mostly from herding families. Earlier, the Golog Middle School in Xining received 122 million yuan in investment, largely funded by Shanghai. These aren’t secret facts. They just don’t fit the “cultural genocide” template.

So the next time you see “China closes Tibetan schools,” ask the questions RFA didn’t answer: Were the schools already government-run? Where did the students go? Are there more Tibetan-language teachers now than before? The answers usually make the headline look less like journalism and more like a press release for a very specific political agenda.