By Joyce Huang | 2026-07-01

A new Chinese ethnic unity law has drawn concern from governments, human rights organizations and legal scholars, who say it could strengthen state control over language, religion and culture while extending Beijing's legal reach beyond its borders.

The 65-article Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress took effect on July 1, after being adopted by China's top legislature in March. Beijing says the law is intended to foster a shared national identity among China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups.

Critics, however, say the legislation enables harsher assimilation policies and broader extraterritorial enforcement.

The law's most controversial provision, Article 63, states that individuals or organizations outside China may be held legally liable for actions deemed to undermine ethnic unity or incite ethnic separatism.

Two other provisions have further raised concerns regarding the law's transnational repression. Article 21 calls for more cross-strait integration and promotion of a Chinese national identity among Taiwanese and Hong Kong residents.

Meanwhile, Article 44 directs overseas Chinese associations to cultivate that same identity globally, reinforcing fears of pushing state influence beyond China's borders.

Taiwan in the crosshairs

Taiwan has emerged as one of the primary concerns because Beijing increasingly relies on domestic legislation to justify action against what it calls separatist activities beyond its borders.

"This is one of the many [legal] means that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] uses to force you into yielding to [its rule]," Chilly Chen, chairman of Taiwan Republic, a Taiwanese independence advocacy group in Taipei, told Focus.

Chen said the ethnic unity law, together with Beijing's 2005 Anti-Secession Law and 2015 National Security Law, all seek to hold foreign critics of Beijing such as himself legally accountable.

Chen said he and most members of his group remain unfazed by Beijing's increasing political intimidation, although he has stopped traveling since 2019 to mainland China and territories including Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and Cambodia, where he says China could exercise "long-arm jurisdiction" to facilitate his arrest.

Beijing says the overseas provision is necessary to safeguard "sovereignty, security and development interests," according to Reuters.

The Australian government has raised concerns, saying it had spoken "directly with Beijing and at the UN [United Nations] Human Rights Council" over the law's potential to curtail the rights and freedoms of people outside China, ABC News Australia reported on June 26.

"All people in Australia, regardless of citizenship, are protected by Australian law and enjoy Australian political freedoms," the report cited a spokesperson for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as saying.

Germany, the European Parliament and U.S. lawmakers have voiced concern that the law could weaken protections for minority languages, religions and cultures while raising the risk of transnational repression.

Minority rights squashed

Beyond its extraterritorial provisions, the law could further erode protections for ethnic minorities within China, say rights groups.

In a June 25 statement, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said the legislation had "legalized discrimination and permitted violations of human rights, particularly ethnic minorities' rights to culture and way of life" in Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

The law ostensibly emphasizes "social cohesion" but may instead curtail "freedoms of language, education, practice of religion, culture, expression and assembly" and penalize the "peaceful exercise of minority rights," the statement said, quoting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who June 15 called for the law's repeal.

In addition, eight UN human rights experts said in April that several provisions "are ambiguous, open to broad interpretation and susceptible to misuse," the group said.

The experts said the legislation could jeopardize internationally protected rights, including freedom of expression, education, religion, housing and development, according to the rights group.

"If the government is serious about ethnic unity, it should drop this law and allow accountability for vast violations," Chinese Human Rights Defenders researcher Shane Yi said in the statement.

Assimilation policy

In an analysis published on May 11, Australian historian Brian Spivey described the law as a mechanism to subordinate China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups to a single overarching zhonghua minzu, or "Chinese nation," as defined by the CCP.

The legislation promotes the universal use of Mandarin while narrowing the space for minority languages and cultures, he said. No child in China will need to learn Tibetan or Uyghur as a compulsory language for school or public life.

The law codifies China's shift under President Xi Jinping toward "aggressive assimilation," said Spivey.

[Part I of II: China's Ethnic Unity Law]