China has passed a sweeping new law aimed at forging a “shared” national identity among the Han Chinese majority and the 55 recognised ethnic minorities, a move Beijing says will strengthen cohesion and modernisation. But it’s sparked fears that this will legally strengthen decades of a forced assimilation policy targeting groups including Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Mongolians.
The ‘Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress’ was approved on Thursday at the closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, by 2,756 votes to three, with three abstentions.
Language at the centre
At its core, the law mandates Mandarin as the basic language of instruction in schools from kindergarten through the end of high school, and for all government and official business. A draft copy of the legislation reviewed by Reuters goes further: in public settings where Mandarin and minority languages appear together, Mandarin must be given “prominence in placement, order, and similar respects”.
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The law does state that “the state respects and protects the learning and use of minority languages and scripts”. However, critics say the broader thrust of the legislation tells a different story.
Earlier, students in minority regions were permitted to study much of their curriculum in their native language, be it Tibetan, Uyghur, or Mongolian, among others. Under the new framework, that flexibility is gone.
Magnus Fiskesjo, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University, said the law would “isolate” the next generation, forcing them to abandon their language and culture. The Chinese government, for its part, argues that Mandarin instruction improves job prospects for minority youth.
Beyond language, the law calls for promoting “integration” across education, housing, migration, community life, culture, and tourism. Analysts cited by the BBC say provisions encouraging “mutually embedded community environments” are likely, in practice, to break up neighbourhoods with high concentrations of minorities.
Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, was blunt in his assessment. “The law makes it clearer than ever that in President Xi Jinping’s China, non-Han peoples must do more to integrate themselves with the Han majority, and above all else be loyal to Beijing,” he said.
Reach beyond China’s borders
One key point that sets this legislation apart from previous policy directives is that it covers Chinese people outside the country too, Reuters noted in a report citing analysts.
The law states that organisations and individuals outside China that carry out acts deemed to “undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic separatism” will be “pursued for legal liability in accordance with the law”.
This has implications for several groups that diasgree with the Communist regime. The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which works out of Munich and Washington, is one such example. The WUC’s president, Turgunjan Alawdun, warned that the law, read alongside China’s Counter-Terrorism Law which is used to justify the mass detention camp system launched in 2016, could further restrict basic freedoms in minority regions.
The detention of over a million Uyghur Muslims in facilities Beijing describes as “re-education” centres has previously drawn a United Nations finding of serious human rights violations.
UN reacts too
UN human eights chief Volker Turk voiced concern the day after the law’s passage, warning that it “risks entrenching assimilationist policies in statute, restricting minority-language education, and limiting free practice of religion and culture”. H
He called upon China to uphold obligations under international human rights law, which requires states to protect the identities of ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities.
The WUC has also urged the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to raise the matter directly with Beijing during diplomatic engagements.
But China has pushed back. An editorial in state newspaper China Daily argued that the law followed a rigorous legislative process with multiple rounds of consultation with lawmakers and ethnic minority representatives.
“It is misleading to claim that ethnic minorities in China must choose between economic development and cultural preservation,” it said.
(With inputs from Reuters, AFP and ANI)