Police have offered cash rewards in China’s Inner Mongolia region, as authorities hunt for more than 100 people following mass demonstrations sparked by a decision to replace the native Mongolian language with Mandarin Chinese in some school subjects.

The police department in Tongliao, a city where the most ethnic Mongolians reside in the region, published seven separate notices on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, with detailed descriptions and pictures of at least 138 people accused of “provoking quarrels and inciting troubles” between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. The police have already arrested 129 people.

The notices offered cash rewards of 1,000 yuan (US$146.19) to anyone who could provide reliable information that linked to the suspects’ identities. Authorities urged those people to surrender themselves, adding that public gatherings were also banned.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Mongolians took to the streets earlier this week to protest in major cities in the region, after the government changed the language of instruction of certain subjects, such as politics and history, from Mongolian to Mandarin. The change prompted students to boycott classes and to take part in petitions and demonstrations. Parents also threatened to keep their children home instead of going to school.

There are fears that the new policy is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s plan to assimilate ethnic Mongolian minorities into the predominant Chinese Han culture, relegating the native Mongolian language and culture to ultimately be eliminated by Mandarin, the national language of China.

Footage of people besieging school entrances and clashing with local police — believed to have originated from Tongliao — has been circulating on Twitter. Many students were also seen chanting slogans outside schools

Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily reported that local governments have pressurized Chinese Communist Party members and those ethnic Mongolians receiving social benefits to send their children back to school as soon as possible.

Chinese media Duowei News said it was unlikely for the government to rescind the decision because the revamp in the teaching materials is part of a “grandiose strategy” driven by the decision-making level of China, and that such opposition is only seen in Inner Mongolia.

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