CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping (©Kyodo via Sankei)
The Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) has, on March 11–12, passed a new law under a seemingly innocuous title of "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress."
The law is scheduled to be effective from July 1, 2026. Unity and progress are the foundation of social and national development — making it, at first glance, a welcome initiative.
However, a pertinent question here is why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) needs to come up with a new law on ethnic unity after more than seventy years since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Assimilation in the Name of Unity
A quick answer is that despite its claim of liberation, unity, and prosperity, the regime has still not won the trust and loyalty of the minority nationals of Tibet, East-Turkistan, Southern Mongolia, and others.
The regime is now forcing assimilation in the name of unity and demanding patriotism and loyalty not only from the minority nationals but also from the Chinese and the people of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. This loyalty, moreover, is not to China as a nation, but to the communist party, as the absolute authority.
The law has seven chapters with sixty-five articles. Despite saying ethnic unity, the display of Chinese (Han) chauvinism is conspicuous with repeated use of phrases like "Chinese national" and "Chinese nation," nearly eighty times in the text.
If this Ethnic Law is all about forging a strong sense of the Chinese national community, then what is there for other nationals and ethnic communities? The law only addresses the unity of Chinese nationals. It offers nothing to the minority nationals in the region.
A Manufactured National Identity
The new law is all about the Chinese nation and the Chinese national community and is irrelevant to the minority nationals. One need not look further than Article 1 of the law. It says, "This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution to promote ethnic unity and progress, forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, advance the building of the Chinese national community, and propel the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."
The Article is illogical and incoherent. First, despite its claim, the law is not in accordance with the PRC's Constitution (Article 4), where minority nationals are given freedom and autonomy to maintain and promote their identity, language, and culture. Therefore, it is a gross violation and misinterpretation of the Constitution to legitimize its assimilation policy.
Second, the Law mentions forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. We must note that China, right now, is not a nation-state. It is a colonial empire with occupied regions. People of the minority nationals are not Chinese, but they have their own distinct national identity. Therefore, the claim of China as a nation-state, and the minority nationals as Chinese nationals are not true. This is an outright invasion and derision of minority nationals' identity and aspiration.
Thirdly, it talks of building the "Chinese national community." If the CCP wants to promote and build a "Chinese nation", it should first revert China to the Chinese people. As of now, China is under the dictatorship of the CCP, and it does not belong to the Chinese people.
If China is to belong to the Chinese people, the Chinese government should be a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Is the regime ready for this?
Misinterpretation of Marxism-Leninism
Article 2 of the Law stipulates adhering to Marxism-Leninism. Yet what the regime is doing is contrary to what the two great helmsmen had taught. The essence of Marxism is based on the removal of labor exploitation, but the CCP regime is known best for labor exploitation, especially in Uyghur and other occupied regions.
Leninism talks of freedom and autonomy of the different nationals, but what the regime is doing is the eradication and assimilation of the minority nationals. So, with what authority is the regime talking about Marxism and Leninism?
"Those who do not agree with and support the equality of nationalities and languages and those who do not fight against nationality oppression and inequality are not Marxists or even socialists" (The Collected Work of Lenin, vol.20).
And Joseph Stalin said that "the people of a certain nationality use their own language because using their own language is the only way for them to develop their own culture, politics, and economy" (The Collected Works of Stalin, vol II) [A Tibetan Revolutionary, The Political Life of Times of Bapa Phuntso Wangye P-296]
Contrary to the principal teachings of Marxism and Leninism, the Law speaks of a singular objective of developing the Chinese national community, Chinese culture, Chinese people, Chinese image, and unity of the Chinese nation.
If the regime thinks that such a law will help achieve unity and the trust and loyalty of the minority nationals, it is totally mistaken. It will only fortify the minority nationals' doubt that the law is made to destroy their identity and existence.
Article-15 is clear about how minority languages should be removed and how Chinese, as a "common and official language" for all purposes, should be promoted. It has made Mandarin mandatory in all educational institutions as a "common language and script" for teaching and learning. It has effectively criminalized the preservation and promotion of minority languages.
The Sinicization of Religions
Article 46 of the law openly and boldly calls for "Sinicizing religions in China, guide religions to adapt to socialist society, and guide religious personnel and believers to uphold patriotic traditions, thereby promoting ethnic harmony, religious harmony, and social harmony."
It's worth noting that "Sinicizing" means loyalty to the regime and adoption of Xi Jinping's ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is an open secret that communist ideology and socialism with Chinese characteristics have no place for religious beliefs.
According to Boston University's 2020 World Religion Database, there are 499 million folk and ethnic religionists, 288 million Buddhists, 106 million Christians, 23.7 million Muslims, 7.7 million Taoists and Confucians, 20,500 Sikhs, and 2,900 Jews in China and the occupied regions.
The figure comes to about 924 million believers. This is an enormous figure, nearly 1/8th of the world population. If the CCP is successful in its plan, the world will witness new religions under the same names with the CCP as the supreme guiding force. This will usher in a new era of religious wars between the world religions and the CCP-fostered religions.
Legal Contradictions and Violations
As noted earlier, the law is against the Chinese Constitution and the PRC's Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law. The new law is trying to override all the existing laws. It is a deliberate attempt to make and designate the existing minority nationals as ethnic minorities with Chinese as the supreme majority.
This is in violation of Article 4 of the Constitution and Articles 21, 37, and 49 of the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, which guarantee the preservation and promotion of minority languages, religions, and cultures. The NPC first needs to revise the Constitution and the Regional Autonomy Law before implementing the new law.
China invaded Tibet under the guise of "peaceful liberation" and flaunted the 17-point agreement of 1951 as a legal document to legitimize the occupation. The new law is a violation and blatant betrayal of this agreement.
As a member of the United Nations, the CCP regime is violating Articles 15, 26, 28, and 29 of the UN Charter of Human Rights. Therefore, the law is unconstitutional, a betrayal, and against the UN conventions.
What China has not been able to achieve through force, repression, and intimidation all these years, China is now establishing laws to achieve its goal by legitimizing its repressions.
Repression by Design
Recognizing the strong faith among Tibetans and Himalayan Buddhists in the reincarnation system of Tibetan lamas, the CCP enacted Religious Order No 5 in July 2007. The order requires state approval for the selection and recognition of reincarnated teachers.
To further legitimize religious interference and tighten control over religious teachings, the regime passed Religious Order No. 19 in July 2024. The measure makes the adoption of CCP ideology and Xi Jinping Thought compulsory in all religious instruction.
These Orders provided the regime with total control over the monasteries, churches, mosques, temples, and the religious teachers. The silence of the international community has emboldened the regime to come up with this new law, "Ethnic Unity and Progress," to erase the minority nationals' identity with impunity.
The international community should protest this law, because this is not about the minority nationals' issue in China. It is not Chinese internal affairs. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ITC) report, "The law provides a legal tool for the CCP to establish and enforce a unified national identity and singular idea of China, shaped by the CCP and authoritarian ideology."
The successful implementation of this pernicious and disdainful law in China and the occupied region will ultimately bring the dragon's fiery fumes to the neighboring countries and around the world, and engulf the people's mind and consciousness with the CCP's ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It would likewise force democracy and rule of law to go hiding behind the bush.
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Author: Tsewang Gyalpo Arya
Dr Tsewang Gylapo Arya is the former Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations and former Director of the Tibet Policy Institute. He is currently the Representative of the Liaison Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia. His books include Harnessing the Dragon's Fume and The Ancient Tibetan Civilization. The view expressed above is the author's own.
