Chinese Ethnic Unity Law Expands Control Over Minorities Abroad

SadaNews - The "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law in China will come into effect on July 1, 2026, after being approved by the Chinese legislative council on March 12, 2026. Human rights organizations, including "Human Rights Watch," view it as a justification for suppressing minorities, erasing linguistic rights, and expanding control abroad.

The new law includes a provision stating that individuals and groups outside the People's Republic of China can be legally held accountable for undermining "ethnic unity and progress" or inciting ethnic separation. Thus, the comprehensive ethnic unity law institutionalizes Beijing's approach to the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs, some of whom advocate for separation and have activists and figures representing them abroad.

China defends the "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law

Before the law takes effect, China reaffirmed on June 24, 2026, its right to target individuals outside its borders who violate the "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law, indicating that this measure aligns with international practice and is legal and necessary.

Chinese Deputy Minister of Justice He Wei described as "unobjective and legally unfounded" claims published by Western media that the provision concerning the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the new law constitutes "long-arm jurisdiction."

At a press conference on June 24, 2026, he dismissed the "extended jurisdiction" applied to the new Chinese ethnic unity law, stating that the provision concerning violators of this law abroad is based on China's national circumstances and is consistent with legal principles and international practices, representing a legitimate, legal, necessary, and enforceable measure.

He emphasized that "maintaining national unity, territorial integrity, and social stability falls under the sovereign rights of all countries, a fundamental principle established under international law."

He added that "countries around the world have the right to prevent secessionist activities and maintain social cohesion and public order through local legislation," stressing that the primary aim is to protect ethnic harmony, social stability, and national security.

He considered the Chinese ethnic unity law part of broader efforts to strengthen the legal basis for work related to ethnic affairs and protect the fundamental interests of people from all ethnic groups.

He Wei mentioned that the new legislation solidifies effective governance practices, provides a legal basis for combating unlawful activities abroad, and builds a security barrier for exchange, integration, and shared development among all ethnic groups.

He stated that the legislation will not affect normal people-to-people and cultural exchanges, academic dialogue, or economic and trade cooperation between China and other countries, indicating that China strongly opposes all actions that use ethnicity, religion, or human rights as a pretext to discredit, contain, or suppress China.

Key Provisions in the Chinese Ethnic Unity Law

According to the text of the "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law, the Chinese language is mandatory for all ethnicities, requiring children in preschool and primary school age to be educated in Chinese. This elevates the status of the national language (Chinese) while significantly reducing teaching in native languages in minority regions such as Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian.

Additionally, the law stipulates that families, teachers, and community centers must "foster a strong sense of belonging to the Chinese nation" through explicit promotion of Han (Chinese ethnicity) principles and the ruling Communist Party.

The legislation also encourages mixed marriages between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities, linking border areas with majority minorities to national economic and security priorities.

The controversial extraterritorial jurisdiction provision pertains to actions outside China's territorial borders. It affirms China's right to take legal action against individuals abroad considered to undermine "ethnic unity" or incite separation. There is a related branch in this provision concerning general surveillance, obliging internet service providers to promptly block content deemed to undermine ethnic harmony and allowing citizens to report rule violators.

International, Rights, and Global Warnings

The extraterritorial jurisdiction provision in the Chinese ethnic unity law has raised significant concerns, especially in Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory, fearing it could provide Beijing another legal pretext to pursue Taiwanese considered separatists.

Human rights organizations have complained that Beijing has attempted to use "red notices" issued by Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) to urge foreign governments to arrest individuals abroad wanted for political crimes domestically.

On September 25, 2017, Human Rights Watch stated in a letter to Interpol that the organization should combat China's misuse of the "red notice" system.

It added that in violation of Interpol regulations, China has issued "red notices" aimed at the arrest and extradition of individuals wanted for political motives against dissenters and others deemed troublesome by Beijing abroad.

The organization noted that China's records in arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and illegal refoulement raise concerns about the risk of torture and other forms of mistreatment for individuals covered by Chinese-issued red notices. The "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law faced immediate backlash from international bodies and researchers upon its issuance.

The European Parliament issued a resolution on April 30, 2026, condemning the Chinese ethnic unity law for violating cultural and linguistic freedoms, warning of severe consequences for relations between the European Union and China.

In a letter to the Chinese government dated April 16, 2026, eight UN experts on human rights expressed their concerns regarding the "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" Law. According to the experts, this law imposes significant restrictions on the exercise of a range of social and cultural rights, constituting a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a party and which are binding upon it. The experts warned that the law, when applied nationally, could "transform temporary or experimental regional measures into binding obligations nationwide," posing serious repercussions on linguistic, cultural, and religious rights and the autonomy of ethnic groups and peoples, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols. They considered that this law institutionalizes the new approach of Chinese leadership based on forced assimilation relating to "ethnic integration," an approach that has so far only been tested through measures applied in predominantly Tibetan and Mongolian areas.

Previously, on September 28, 2025, Human Rights Watch considered that the proposed law at the time "would provide a broad legal framework to justify ongoing repression (in China) and enforce forced assimilation of minorities across the country and abroad." It emphasized in a report that "if passed, this law could be used to facilitate tightening ideological restrictions, targeting ethnic and religious minorities, including erasing the linguistic rights of those minorities, and enhancing Chinese control beyond national borders." Maya Wang, the assistant director for the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, stated in the report that "the bill prepared by the Chinese government on promoting ethnic unity seeks to mobilize the bureaucratic apparatus and society to unify people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China at the expense of human rights." She added that "Tibetans, Uyghurs, and others who raise their voices in defense of minorities can expect further government repression."

Ethnic Unrest

In his reading of the new Chinese ethnic unity law, international relations expert residing in Hong Kong, Zhou Yang, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the law "is an extension of previous measures aimed at imposing more strictness and security control over minorities." In his view, it "institutionalizes an aggressive policy that assumes everyone not of Han Chinese ethnicity is hostile to the state, and the only ticket to absolution is forced integration into socialism with Chinese characteristics." According to Zhou Yang, this policy "is being applied across all aspects of social and cultural life in China, as if religion is socialist, belief is socialist, language is socialist, marriage, and education, which takes us back to the era of the Soviet Union and the rule of Big Brother."

Zhou Yang stated that "the idea of merging ethnic identities into one crucible is an erasure of the cultural identity that distinguishes each ethnicity, and a melting down of natural differences among minorities." He stressed that "the continuation of this approach poses a warning of a new wave of ethnic unrest in the country." In this context, he mentioned that "similar policies were implemented in Inner Mongolia in 2020 when teaching in Chinese was imposed in primary schools, leading to widespread popular protests." He also added that "during the same period, restaurants belonging to the Uyghur nationality in Beijing were prohibited from using the word Halal in Arabic and Uyghur, and were required to use only Chinese language."

Concerning the extraterritorial jurisdiction, Zhou Yang warned that this provision could be used "to pursue dissidents and activists, by providing legal cover to the governments of the countries where they are located, thus proceeding through official arrest warrants under this provision, and under cooperation protocols between the Chinese police and international police agencies." However, he noted that this matter would require more time for assessment and monitoring to determine how effective the new law will be in obligating judicial authorities abroad.