China’s newly enacted legislation, the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, officially took effect on July 1, signaling a significant shift in the state's approach to managing ethnic minority policy. The law has drawn international scrutiny, particularly due to Article 63, which asserts legal authority over organizations and individuals outside of China who are accused of undermining ethnic unity or advocating for ethnic division. Critics view this as a formalization of Beijing’s long-standing practices regarding the transnational monitoring of Tibetan and Uyghur diasporas.
Central to the legislation is the concept of “forging” a common national consciousness, moving away from the post-Cultural Revolution framework of nominal ethnic autonomy. The law emphasizes a “shared” territory, history, and political future, aiming to stabilize identity under party-state direction. Educational institutions are now required to integrate this “sense of community” into their curricula, utilizing nationally unified textbooks and prioritizing the national common language. While the state claims to respect the use of minority languages, the law mandates that the national common language must be highlighted in all public signage, publications, and institutional communications.
The law also focuses on social and economic integration through the coordination of population mobility. By encouraging cross-regional enrollment in schools and fostering interconnected community environments, the government aims to weaken cultural, linguistic, or religious barriers. This approach aligns with the “developmentalist” strategy observed in Xinjiang and Tibet, where economic modernization is utilized to integrate ethnic regions into the national fold and mold non-Han populations into what the state defines as “high-quality” citizens.
Religion is similarly incorporated into this framework. Under Article 46, religious organizations and venues are tasked with promoting patriotic traditions and adhering to the “Sinicization of religion.” You have reached the limit of 2 free articles this month. This directive seeks to align religious beliefs with socialist values and confine religious expression to administrative boundaries defined by the party-state.
As the articles under Chapter 2 (“Building a New Spiritual Home”) demonstrate, this objective of “casting and stabilization” is to be achieved, in part, by stipulating that “schools and other educational institutions at all levels and types” must “integrate the requirement of forging a strong sense of community of the Chinese nation throughout the entire education process” through the use of “nationally unified textbooks,” “the national common language and script as the basic language and teaching language,” and the construction of a “discourse system” that “explains the history and connotations of the multi-ethnic unity pattern of the Chinese nation and civilization.” Significantly, while the law notes that the state “respects and guarantees the study and use of minority languages and scripts,” their use is subordinated to “the national common language” with “state organs, social organizations, enterprises, institutions, and other social organizations” to “highlight the national common language and script” in everyday use, publications, and public signage.
Ultimately, the legislation serves as a comprehensive legal framework for an assimilationist project. Thus, the significance of the law lies not simply in its controversial extraterritorial reach, but in what it reveals about the trajectory of party rule under Xi. Ethnic difference is no longer treated as a feature of the PRC to be managed through limited autonomy but as an obstacle to national unity that must be transformed through law, ideology, and state power.
Second, Chapters 3 and 4 (“Promoting Exchange, Exchange, and Integration” and “Promoting Common Prosperity and Development”) frame social and economic development as critical mechanisms for achieving the “forging” of a “common national consciousness” by “advancing all ethnic groups toward socialist modernization togeth
The core theme of Chapter 3 is that of the “integration” ethnic minorities with the majority Han Chinese population. This is to be achieved through coordinated “economic and social development” that will emphasize the “construction of interconnected community environments.” Here, the law states that “people’s governmen
