Nationalism is rising in the post-Soviet Central Asian countries - officials are increasingly raising the issue of language. Now they have also reached the Chinese businessmen living in the country.
The Chairman of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan (GKNB) Kamchybek Tashiev reprimanded a representative of a Chinese company for speaking in Russian and demanded that he learn Kyrgyz. This was reported by the Telegram channel NewTimes.kz.
"Should I respond to you in Kyrgyz? What, in Russian? Why haven’t you learned to speak Kyrgyz yet? Chinese, you have been working here in Kyrgyzstan for twenty years! And what, you haven’t learned to speak Kyrgyz? Learn Kyrgyz!" the official Tashiev stated.
The official noted that the Chinese company China Road has been operating in the country for 20 years, and in his opinion, its employee should have learned the Kyrgyz language by now.
Read on the topic: Enough living like in the USSR and speaking Russian! Nationalism is strengthening in Kazakhstan
