Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress
| Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National People's Congress | |
| Passed by | National People's Congress |
| Passed | 12 March 2026 |
| Enacted | 1 July 2026 |
| Signed by | President Xi Jinping |
| Signed | 12 March 2026 |
| Legislative history | |
| Introduced by | Ethnic Affairs Committee |
| First reading | 8–12 September 2025 |
| Second reading | 22–27 December 2025 |
| Third reading | 5–12 March 2026 |
| Voting summary |
|
| Status: Current legislation | |
| Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 民族团结进步促进法 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 民族團結進步促進法 | ||||||
| |||||||
The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress is a legislation in China concerning ethnic minorities. The law was introduced by the National People's Congress (NPC)'s Ethnic Affairs Committee and submitted to the NPC on 8 September 2025. It was signed into law on 12 March 2026 and slated to go into effect on 1 July 2026. The law codifies Xi Jinping's policies regarding sinicization of ethnic minorities. The law has been criticized by scholars, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, multiple governments, former United Nations special rapporteurs, and human rights activists outside of China. The law's promotion of extraterritorial enforcement has been likened to transnational repression.
Legislative history
[edit]The law was introduced by the National People's Congress's Ethnic Affairs Committee and submitted to the NPC on 8 September 2025.[1] It was passed by the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress on 12 March 2026 and signed by President Xi Jinping on the same day.[2] The law is scheduled to go in effect on 1 July 2026.[3]
Content
[edit]The law codifies general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's policies regarding ethnic affairs.[4] It is one of the few Chinese laws to have a preamble, which calls China "a civilization with a history of over 5,000 years" that has forged "a unified multi-ethnic nation" under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),[5] which it states is "a community of common destiny bound by intertwined bloodlines, common beliefs, cultural similarities, economic interdependence, and close emotional ties" that has successfully preserved their civilization despite periods of foreign aggression after 1840. It says the CCP as the "vanguard of the Chinese people and the Zhonghua minzu" led all ethnic groups in achieving independence and equality and charted "a correct path with Chinese characteristics for addressing ethnic issues", which evolved into the CCP's "Important Thinking on Improving and Strengthening Ethnic Work" whose "main task" is to forge "a sense of community for the Chinese nation". It concludes by calling on all citizens and institutions, state and private, to fulfill their shared obligations to "forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation" and to develop that community.[6]
Chapters I and V lay out the organizational structure and overarching principles of ethnic governance. It affirms the Party's "comprehensive leadership" over efforts to advance ethnic unity and progress, and task the United Front Work Department and its National Ethnic Affairs Commission regarding the implementation of ethnic affairs policy. It declares "a sense of community for the Chinese nation" to be "the foundation of ethnic unity" and tasks the whole of government and society to achieve these goals, mandating general obligations on a wide range of public and private actors such as public employees, mass organizations, enterprises, public-service institutions, industry groups, religious institutions, neighborhood committees, and the military.[6]
Chapter II, titled Building a Shared Spiritual Home. lays out the ideological characteristics of the law, requiring fostering identification with "the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics" through patriotic education, education in official historical narratives, publicity of "the fine Zhonghua traditional culture," and promotion of "Chinese cultural symbols and image of the Chinese nation". It also codifies the predominance of Standard Chinese (Putonghua) in public life, codifying the goal of having preschoolers become proficient in Putonghua and requires that Chinese characters be displayed more prominently than minority scripts if both must be used in public. It tasks the Ministry of Education and the National Ethnic Affairs Commission in developing textbooks regarding "the community of the Chinese nation" and requires all schools to integrate that concept into their curricula. It vows to support the standardization, digitization, and preservation of minority texts. It broadly requires media, internet service providers, families, among others, to promote the CCP's ethnic policy and reminds parents of their duty to provide lawful family education, while prohibiting them from "instilling in minors ideas detrimental to ethnic unity and progress".[6]
Chapter III, titled Facilitating Interactions, Interchanges, and Intermingling, promotes further ethnic integration. It obligates the government to support "inter-embedded community environments" so that ethnic groups can "live, study, build, share, work, and enjoy together". For that goal, it requires local governments to "forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation" and promote integration in all aspects of urban planning and governance. It specifically directs them to implement policies to facilitate cross-regional population movement, employment, student enrollment, and teacher and youth exchanges. It also mandates authorities to support and shape volunteer services, cultural institutions (libraries, museums, etc.), the tourism industry, and modern technologies and online media. It mandates internet service providers to promptly stop the transmission of "information containing ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination, or other content that undermines ethnic unity and progress."[6]
Chapter IV, titled Promoting Common Prosperity and Development, focuses on integrating border regions and those with significant ethnic minorities to national economic and security priorities, requiring economic and social policies to further advance ethnic integration and improve people's lives and build popular support, as well as help safeguard national unity and fight against separatism. Ethnic areas has a "mission and responsibility" to safeguard the nation's "border security, resource and energy security, food security, and ecological security". Per the law, relevant central and local authorities are to improve infrastructure connectivity, develop appropriate local industries and agriculture, equalize public services, and strengthen environmental protection. It also requires promoting "civic and moral development", mandating "transforming outdated customs and traditions" and "promoting a new culture of civility and progress".[6] The law encourages marriages between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities.[7] It bars anyone from blocking marriages on ethnic grounds.[8]
Chapter V and VI concern the enforcement mechanisms of the law. It permits citizens to report conduct that "undermines ethnic unity and progress" and to lodge complaints against government agencies and employees who fail to discharge their obligations under the Law. Procuratorates may initiate public interest litigation when any such conduct also "undermines national interests or the public interest". It generally leaves penalties to be imposed under other applicable laws. It also asserts jurisdiction over foreign organizations and individuals that "commit acts targeting the PRC that undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic division".[6] The law empowers the state to pursue those outside of China perceived as undermining notions of ethnic unity.[9]
Responses
[edit]Commentary outside of China has centered on the law's promotion of a singular Han-centric Chinese identity at the expense of minorities' identities.[3] Anthropologist Magnus Fiskesjö of Cornell University stated that the "law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift, to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognised since 1949."[10] According to Neil Thomas of Asia Society, the law expands "the legal basis for restricting religious, cultural and political activities among minority groups."[11] According to historian Benno Weiner of Carnegie Mellon University, the law if enforced would mean that non-Han people could not express "any type of discontent without being accused of being essentially separatists or terrorists".[11] James Leibold of La Trobe University stated that "[b]y folding ethnic affairs into national security, the law expands the scope for surveillance and intervention in domains previously treated as social or cultural."[12] Regarding the extraterritorial enforcement dimensions of the law, Yalkun Uluyol of Human Rights Watch stated, "[t]hat is what you call transnational repression."[9] The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that the law "could restrict freedom of religion and culture".[13]
In April 2026, a letter from the United Nations, signed by eight former special rapporteurs for human rights, stated that the law could violate at least 12 international human rights laws that China has ratified, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[14]
On 30 April 2026, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which condemns the law and warns that it "would intensify the systematic suppression of ethnic identities and further worsen relations between the European Union and Beijing".[15] The Chinese Mission to the European Union stated that the resolution "disregards facts and the rule of law, maliciously smears China's laws and ethnic policies, and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs".[16]
See also
[edit]- List of ethnic groups in China
- Unrecognized ethnic groups in China
- Ethnic groups in Chinese history
- Minzu (anthropology)
References
[edit]- ^ Wei, Changhao. "Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress". NPC Observer. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ^ "（全国两会）一部法律，一张新时代民族工作的"导航图"" [(National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) A law: a "navigation map" for ethnic work in the new era.] (in Chinese). China News Service. 2026-03-12. Retrieved 2026-03-12 – via Sina Corporation.
- ^ a b Nye, Christopher (April 2, 2026). "Ethnic Unity Law Enforces Mandatory Assimilation". Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 2026-04-03. Retrieved 2026-04-06.
- ^ Reisboard, Jonah (March 27, 2026). "Ethnic Unity Law Codifies 'Chinese' Identity - Jamestown". Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 2026-03-28.
- ^ "China: Draft 'Ethnic Unity' Law Tightens Ideological Control". Human Rights Watch. 2025-09-28. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ^ a b c d e f Wei, Changhao (2026-03-05). "NPC 2026: China to Enshrine Xi-Era Ethnic Policy in New Law". NPC Observer. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ^ "China tightens grip on Uyghurs with 'shared identity' law". The Daily Telegraph. 12 March 2026. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
- ^ "There are 56 ethnicities in China—and 55 are getting squashed". The Economist. 9 March 2026. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ^ a b Kuo, Lily (2026-03-12). "China Wants Its Ethnic Minorities to Blend In. Now It's the Law". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-12.
- ^ Bicker, Laura (2026-03-12). "China approves 'ethnic unity' law requiring minorities to learn Mandarin". BBC News. Retrieved 2026-03-12.
- ^ a b Leahy, Joe (3 March 2026). "China prepares landmark law curtailing minority language rights". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
- ^ Leibold, James (May 6, 2026). "New Law Engineers Unity". Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 2026-05-08. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
- ^ "UN human rights chief concerned by China's 'ethnic unity' law". Hong Kong Free Press. Agence France-Presse. 14 March 2026. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
- ^ Hope, Arran (15 May 2026). "A 'New Beginning' for Xi's Assimilationist Agenda". Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 2026-05-16.
- ^ "European Parliament condemns Chinas new Ethnic Unity Law, warns of deepening repression and escalating human rights concerns". The Tribune. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
- ^ "Spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the EU Speaks on a Question Concerning the European Parliament's China-Related Resolution". Mission of the People's Republic of China to the European Union. Retrieved 5 May 2026.