China’s new law on ethnic unity signals a shift in Beijing’s focus from handling specific ethnic matters to assimilation, according to a party ethnologist. The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, which took effect this month, provides a framework that analysts say is designed to counter Western ideological influence and provide a statutory mandate for assimilating minority groups. However, it has triggered concerns from the United States and the European Union about forced assimilation...
The government says the law will help forge a shared national identity.
Critics say it could hasten forced assimilation, lead to targeting of critics outside China. Beijing rejects charges.
Rather than promote ethnic harmony, activists say the law could justify transnational repression.
China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, passed in March, takes effect this month. It stands alongside the 1984 Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy as a foundational, comprehensive statute on ethnic affairs, placing the task of forging a strong sense of community squarely within the legal framework. Yet voices abroad have rushed to brand it an act of “transnational repression” and “long-arm jurisdiction”, training their fire on Article 63. Such claims borrow from the vocabulary of law but...