Germany called out China over its security law imposed on Hong Kong and the treatment of minority Uighurs on Tuesday during a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that was marked by protests outside the foreign ministry.

At a press conference after talks with Wang, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, also warned China against making "threats" against the Czech Republic over Taiwan.

The Hong Kong law imposed in June radically increased Beijing's control over the city and has led to a brutal crackdown on dissent and protests.

"You know that our concerns about the effects of the security law have not been allayed," Maas said.

"We want the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle to be applied as fully as possible."

Hong Kong was guaranteed autonomy under the "One Country, Two Systems" deal agreed ahead of its 1997 handover from Britain.

But critics say the security law, imposed following months of large and often violent protests calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability, spells the end of the agreement.

The law prompted the US to impose sanctions on Chinese officials and countries including Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany have suspended extradition agreements with Hong Kong.

The European Union agreed in July to limit exports of equipment to Hong Kong that could be used for surveillance and repression.

Wang defended China's policies and said both the Hong Kong law and its approach to the Uighurs were internal affairs that did not merit foreign interference.

- 'We need action' -

Leading a protest by several hundred demonstrators outside the foreign ministry in Berlin on Tuesday, Hong Kong activist Nathan Law called for more support from Berlin over the security law.

"What we need is action... This should be accomplished by the EU together and Germany should take the lead," said Law, 27, who fled to Britain after the security law came in.

"Berlin is very quiet when the topic is China. Berlin is very quiet when the topic is Hong Kong."

Law was joined by supporters waving the blue and white flag of the Uighurs, a minority that suffers from repression and persecution in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, according to rights groups and experts.

Activists say roughly one million Uighurs and other Turkic people have been incarcerated in brainwashing camps, a mass detention that US officials have said has parallels with the Holocaust.

China describes the camps as vocational training centres and says it is seeking to provide education to reduce the allure of Islamic radicalism.

- China 'threats' denounced -

Maas said he and Wang had discussed the camps and "I reiterated that we would very much welcome it if China would... grant access to the camps to a UN observer mission."

The German foreign minister also denounced China's "threats" against a senior Czech politician who led a delegation to Taiwan.

Wang had said on Monday that China would make Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil "pay a high price for his short-sighted behaviour and political speculation".

But Maas warned that the EU treats its foreign partners with respect and expects the same in return.

"Threats do not fit in with this," he said.

Wang's visit to Berlin is the final stop on a tour of five European countries as he seeks to shore up economic and diplomatic relations in light of tensions with the US.

This trip, his first out of China since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, also took in the Netherlands, France, Norway and Italy, where he signed two trade agreements, including one on the supply of gas.

Ethnic Mongolians in China protest switch to Mandarin schooling
Beijing (AFP) Sept 1, 2020 - Tens of thousands of people in an ethnic Mongolian region of northern China have joined rare protests and school boycotts against a new curriculum they fear will wipe out their minority culture, residents said Tuesday.

The sudden policy change in Inner Mongolia means all ethnic minority schools in the remote region will now be required to teach core subjects in Mandarin rather than Mongolian, echoing similar moves in Tibet and Xinjiang to assimilate local minorities into the dominant Han Chinese population.

"Almost every Mongolian in Inner Mongolia is opposed to the revised curriculum," a 32-year-old herder from the Xilingol League area surnamed Hu told AFP, warning Mongolian children were losing fluency in their mother tongue.

"In a few decades, a minority language will be on the verge of extinction."

Tensions flared across the vast grassland region bordering Mongolia and Russia after the policy was announced by the Inner Mongolia Education Bureau last Wednesday.

Mass demonstrations involving parents, students and ordinary citizens have erupted across the region, according to video clips provided by residents to AFP, while thousands of students have boycotted classes.

In some clips, scores of uniformed students can be heard shouting in Mongolian: "I swear to death that I will always learn my mother tongue."

"There are at least tens of thousands of people protesting across Inner Mongolia," said Baatar, a 27-year-old herder in the Hinggan League area who refused to give his name because of security concerns.

As of Tuesday, several bilingual boarding schools in Hinggan League and nearby Tongliao city were surrounded by hundreds of paramilitary police to prevent children who were already enrolled from leaving, Baatar added.

Several parents were beaten and arrested by police late Monday during a demonstration outside his sister's school in Horqin Right Front Banner, Baatar said.

AFP's calls to local bilingual schools went unanswered.

Locals said parents also faced widespread pressure from police to send their children to school, with pupils threatened with expulsion if they did not attend.

- Bilingual curriculum -

Enghebatu Togochog, director of the New York-based NGO Southern Mongolian Human Rights Organization, called the protests a "civil disobedience resistance movement" that has spread throughout Inner Mongolia.

The area is home to more than four million ethnic Mongolians -- around 16 percent of the region's population.

"Parents are refusing to send their children to schools that use Chinese as the only language of instruction," he said.

WeChat messages and photos of petitions against the policy written in the traditional vertical Mongolian script have been mass-censored by authorities in recent days, he added.

The Inner Mongolia Education Bureau did not respond to faxed requests for comment.

It claimed in a Monday post that the number of Mongolian-language teaching hours remained unchanged.

It is the only region left in the world that uses the traditional Mongolian script, as neighbouring Mongolia adopted the Cyrillic alphabet under Soviet influence.

For decades, the region's bilingual curriculum for ethnic minority schools offered a full range of subjects taught in Mongolian, as well as Mandarin, English and Korean classes.

Herder Hu said that he and many other ethnic Mongolians had become fluent in Mandarin while preserving their native language.

On Monday, dozens protested in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar against the Chinese policy, while thousands of Mongolians campaigned online in solidarity with their neighbours.

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