China’s recently enacted Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress allows the government to hold people and organizations outside its borders accountable for actions deemed to threaten ethnic unity or promote separatism. The law, which takes effect on July 1, focuses on China’s 55 ethnic minority groups and explicitly targets overseas actors who challenge the country’s vision of national cohesion.
The legislation passed overwhelmingly through China’s National People’s Congress, embedding President Xi Jinping’s ethnic-affairs policies into the legal system. While framed as a safeguard for social solidarity and national security, the law alarms critics who see it as a tool for extending Beijing’s influence abroad and suppressing dissent among diaspora communities.
Taiwanese government officials and civil society groups have expressed deep concern that the law may be used against supporters of Taiwan independence or critics of the Chinese Communist Party abroad. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council warned that the statute could criminalize activities Beijing labels separatist, with some groups describing it as a mechanism for transnational repression.
International human rights organizations have also condemned the legislation. Human Rights Watch flagged the law as an attempt to regulate thought and expression both inside and outside China. Several United Nations human rights experts cautioned Beijing that the measures risk entrenching forced assimilation policies affecting minority cultures, languages, and religious practices.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the law’s repeal, stressing that it threatens fundamental freedoms like expression, education, and assembly for ethnic minorities. In response, China’s Vice Justice Minister defended the law as legal and necessary, denying that it would interfere with everyday cultural exchanges, academic work, or trade. He maintained that the law protects national sovereignty and the interests of all ethnic groups.