The Debate | Opinion | East Asia

Whither an International Response to China’s Ethnic Unity Law?

The conventional tools previously used to penalize China for its rights abuses – sanctions, public pressure, condemnation, institutional mechanisms, and more – have all been blunted.

A draconian new law in China took effect on July 1, after passing the National People’s Congress back in March. The “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” is the end result of a long shift in governance of China’s minority groups, 55 in total. Far from the post-1949 model of ethnic autonomy, as this new legal framework attempts to “forge” (zhulao) the country’s many distinct peoples into a collective national identity. Southeast Asia has seen this before, evidenced in Thailand’s vague Thainess policy (khwam pen thai), a fascist effort under military strongman Phibun Songkhram.

Beijing’s new law forces schools, families, religious organizations and bodies, the media, and its military to promote this new identity, mandating Mandarin language instruction and giving Chinese script legal priority over minority scripts in public signage. Further, it criminalizes parental instruction deemed harmful to unity and extends legal accountability to organizations and individuals outside China’s borders, a further extension of China’s transnational repression efforts.

China’s ethnic policy shift can be traced to unrest in Tibet in 2008 and Xinjiang in 2009, which provided the CCP the domestic legitimacy to unpack a security narrative, even as there is credible and overwhelming evidence that those incidents can be traced to Han in-migration and forgotten promises of autonomy. Even for Chinese President Xi Jinping, this new law is a giant leap in control over ethnic identities. After taking power in 2012, he first embraced smaller regional steps, seen in provincial regulations in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia before rolling out the nationwide campaign. 

This law represents a new form of fascism for China, complete with a preamble that describes a “community of common destiny bound by intertwined bloodlines, common beliefs, cultural similarities, economic interdependence, and close emotional ties.” It is common for fascist states to prioritize ideological supremacy and an identity forged around forced assimilation rather than a recognition of ethnic diversity. 

The question now is who might challenge it. It’s very unlikely anyone within China will be able to effectively resist. The CCP has effectively neutralized the prospect of domestic challenges to even its most draconian policies. The new law was preceded by lengthy crackdowns against Uyghurs, Tibetans, and even Mongolians, who have never posed a security threat to the........

© The Diplomat