HRF expresses serious concern over China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, which comes into effect today, July 1. The law expands on China’s longstanding ethnic assimilationist policies and emboldens Chinese officials to target individuals overseas who are accused of contravening the law.

With the aim of forging a “shared” national identity, the new law mandates Mandarin education from pre-school through high school and promotes Mandarin as the official language of official business and public spaces.

Article 63 of the law provides legal justification for the CCP’s ongoing transnational repression campaign, raising concerns that Beijing will be even more emboldened in its attempts to silence overseas advocates and deem Taiwanese nationals separatists.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) erasure of culture, religion, language, and autonomy of ethnic regions has occurred for decades under the national objective of “unity,” with attempts to resist consistently suppressed.

HRF calls on democratic governments to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for the passage and implementation of the new law, and to increase support for the preservation of ethnic languages, cultures, and identities in the diaspora.