With an overwhelming majority of "yes", with only three abstentions and three votes "against", the Chinese People's Congress (the Chinese parliament - ed.) adopted a Law on the Promotion of Ethnic Unity. Thus, China demonstrates its desire to impose a common national identity in a country with 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. 55 of them are defined as minorities, since the most numerous - that of the Han Chinese (nearly 1.2 billion people) makes up more than 91% of the country's 1.4 billion population. Other ethnic groups include the Uyghurs (11.7 million), the Hui Muslims (11.4 million), the Tibetans (7.1 million), the Mongols (6.3 million) and others. Some smaller ethnic groups are not recognized. These include Jews, who number several thousand.
Assimilation instead of integration
The law, which will come into force on July 1, 2026, is more like a moral appeal. The aim is to "strengthen the sense of community of the Chinese people, promote the construction of this community and help realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," according to Article 1. The law does not provide specific penalties for violators, but refers to the Criminal Code. It states that "violent terrorist, separatist or religious extremist activities" will be prosecuted.
Critics see the law as a way to equate ethnic groups' demands for cultural autonomy with "separatism." "Following the 2016 anti-terrorism law, which served as the legal basis for the mass internment of people in camps, this new law will further intensify the oppression of Uyghurs in East Turkestan (China's Xinjiang province), especially with regard to linguistic, cultural and religious freedoms," Turgunyan Alawdun, chairman of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, a political organization representing the interests of Uyghurs in exile, told DW.
Massive re-education camps for Uyghurs, a Turkic people, have been set up in Xinjiang. The Chinese authorities officially call them "education centers." In this regard, Alawdun says that the measures taken over the past 10 years to forcibly assimilate and sinicize the Uyghurs have caused severe damage to their cultural and religious identity.
The law accelerates Beijing's efforts to suppress ethnic minorities, especially in Tibet and Xinjiang, and will de facto serve as a legal basis for the authorities to continue suppressing minorities, said Jack Burnham, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Among the specific measures the state has taken are banning Uyghurs from participating in prayers, as well as the demolition of historic mosques,” Burnham said. In addition, it creates incentives to encourage Han Chinese to move en masse to Xinjiang - the Uyghur homeland. Meanwhile, they now make up less than 45 percent of the population of their own autonomous region.
A change in the language hierarchy
Some major ethnic groups in China still have their own languages and scripts, which are depicted on Chinese banknotes, for example. However, the new law stipulates that the Mandarin dialect is the main language of instruction in schools and for the administration. Preschool children must be able to speak and understand Chinese. By the end of nine years of compulsory education, young people must have a perfect command of Mandarin - both spoken and written.
From an ideological and political point of view, all ethnic groups must be more closely tied to the Han Chinese majority and to the Communist Party. Ethnic groups are required by law to identify themselves "with the great motherland, the Chinese people, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics."
According to Jack Burnham, this encourages Han nationalism. In addition to emphasizing the Mandarin dialect, the law forces minorities to live in "mixed communities with a significant Han population." Parents can be held criminally liable if they speak ill of Beijing's national identity policies in front of their children. Parents must raise their children to "love the Chinese Communist Party, the motherland, the people, and the Chinese nation," the law states.
In areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, there has been strong resistance to measures to restrict their language and writing - the last remaining traces of their identity. In 2020, large-scale protests erupted in the autonomous region of “Inner Mongolia“ after local education authorities banned the use of Mongolian-language textbooks in primary and secondary schools.
After the law comes into force, local religious communities will no longer be able to prevent marriages if they conflict with their religious views or customs. Until now, it was common for a Muslim wedding to be preceded by the conversion of the marriage partner who belonged to another faith. "It's a tactic to dilute ethnic communities and eventually have them absorbed by the Han majority," Burnham said.
Author: Yuan Dang