China adopted a sweeping law Thursday to promote what it calls “ethnic unity,” a measure that critics say would further erode the rights of some minority groups as authorities cement a push toward assimilation.
The law, approved by the country’s ceremonial legislature, is designed to foster “a stronger sense of community among all ethnic groups in the Chinese nation,” said Lou Qinjian, a delegate to the National People’s Congress who introduced the proposal to the whole body.
The proposed law lays out the need to promote ethnic unity by all government bodies and private enterprises, including local governments and state-affiliated groups like the All-China Women’s Federation.
“The people of each ethnic group, all organizations and groups of the country, armed forces, every Party and social organization, every company, must forge a common consciousness of the Chinese nation according to law and the constitution, and take the responsibility of building this consciousness,” it reads.
Academics and observers say the new provision represents a setback for the identity of ethnic minorities because it mandates the use of Mandarin Chinese in compulsory education, among other things.
The constitution states that “each ethnicity has the right to use and develop their own language” and “have the right to self-rule,” while the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy promises limited autonomy to those groups, including allowing them to create flexible measures to develop their economy.
Experts say the new law is likely to take priority in practice.
“It puts a death nail in the party’s original promise of meaningful autonomy,” said James Leibold, a professor at Australia’s LaTrobe University who has studied China’s changing policies toward its ethnic minorities. Leibold called the measure a capstone of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “major rethink” of ethnic policies.
