The Mandarin Hegemony is Unlawful and Baseless
—Demanding the Government Implement International Human
Rights Conventions and Guarantee Educational Autonomy and Equal Rights to
Political Participation
The "Mandarin-only Policy"
of Taiwan’s authoritarian era was an act of cultural cleansing and institutional
discrimination against Taiwan's diverse linguistic groups. It infringed upon
the human dignity guaranteed by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, as well as the rights to equality, culture, education, and
political participation guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Following
Taiwan’s democratization, the Measures for the Promotion of Mandarin and
the Organizational Ordinance of the Mandarin Promotion Committee from
the Chiang eras were officially repealed in 2003 and 2014, respectively. The
Legislative Yuan has also ratified five international human rights conventions,
including the above Two Covenants. Moreover, President Tsai promulgated and
implemented the National Languages Development Act in 2019,
demonstrating that Taiwan has been moving toward greater respect for diversity
and language equality. However, the current government still enforces Mandarin
as the sole standard in the military, judiciary, legislature, education, and
national examinations, excluding all other national languages, which is legally
baseless and contradicts various domestic laws passed by the Legislative Yuan.
It runs entirely counter to the universal values of democratic pluralism and
equality.
The
Taiwanese people spoke no Mandarin before World War II. According to the
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (2020), over 80% of
citizens still speak two or more languages [1], proving that a multilingual
Taiwan is the true reality. Yet, for a long time, compulsory education has
forced students to use Mandarin as the sole medium of instruction, leaving them
unable to learn subjects such as mathematics, social studies, and natural
sciences in their own languages. The weekly 40-minute local language lessons
are often used for other classes or exams. Linguistic diversity becomes a
meaningless embellishment. National exams and central government documents also
exclude other national languages. This creates an absurd system where "the
taxes paid by the majority are used to destroy their own languages and cultures,"
leading to cultural fault lines and leaving grandchildren unable to communicate
with grandparents in their own languages. This violates the spirit of a
democratic nation by failing to fairly allocate educational resources and guarantee
the free development of cultural personality.
We
advocate: 1. The Taiwanese government has the duty to obey the law and
terminate compulsory Mandarin education, which lacks a legal basis. Mandarin
should be made an elective, guaranteeing people's right to freely choose their
own language for compulsory education. This implements the right to educational
autonomy under the UN Convention against Discrimination in Education. 2.
Guarantee the people's right to participate in public affairs in their own
languages, and ensure equal rights in school admissions, national examinations,
the judiciary, and when holding public or military office. This implements the
equal rights to political participation and culture guaranteed by the ICCPR and
ICESCR.
We
believe that multilingual coexistence is no burden on governance; rather, it is
a necessary foundation for social resilience and democratic deepening,
especially in contrast to Beijing's 2026 Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and
Progress, which strengthens Mandarin to assimilate Tibetans and Uyghurs. In
fact, the UN Secretariat uses two working languages and six legal languages,
operating smoothly. Luxembourg also legally guarantees three languages in its
education, administration, and judicial documents, allowing citizens to
communicate without barriers. Thus, basing government operations on a
Mandarin-only hegemony is an outdated imagination of the community. Protecting
the equal rights of all languages according to the law is the foundation of a
state governed by the rule of law.
Finally,
maintaining linguistic diversity is an international trend. Most of Taiwan's
twenty-plus native languages are already endangered. Exalting a single language
not only accelerates cultural loss but also increases the risk of Foreign
Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). Language equality is not a
welfare benefit; it is a fundamental human right. Therefore, the government
should comprehensively review the discriminatory policies left over from
Chiang's colonial legacy and revitalize Taiwan's precious multilingual
tradition.
[1] The 2020 population and housing census by the DGBAS shows that among Taiwan's nationals aged 6 and above, those who use various Indigenous languages as their primary or secondary language account for 1.1%, Hakka 5.5%, Taiwanese 86.0%, and Mandarin 96.8%. Conservatively estimated, about 82.8% to 91.6% of the population can use two or more languages. However, all native languages are facing generational fault lines: 0.6% of people aged 65 and over use Indigenous languages as their primary language, but this drops to 0% for those under 14. 4.8% of people aged 65 and over use Hakka as their primary language, but this drops to 0.2% for those under 14. While Taiwanese is still the primary language for 65.9% of people over 65, it drops to 7.4% for those under 14, marking the most drastic loss. In contrast, while only 28.5% of people over 65 use Mandarin as their primary language, the figure surges to 92.1% for those under 14, making it the biggest beneficiary of the exclusive Mandarin policy.
