(Beijing – March 5, 2026) At the opening of the “Two Sessions” on Tuesday, China’s legislature began deliberating a draft law aimed at reshaping the nation’s ethnic landscape. The bill, titled the Law on Ethnic Unity and Progress is viewed by legal experts and human rights observers as a major shift in Beijing’s ethnic policy, moving from the symbolic ethnic regional autonomy of the past toward legally mandated, comprehensive cultural assimilation.
The draft law consists of 62 articles. Its core lies in transforming the ideological phrase “Forging a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation,” proposed by CCP leader Xi Jinping, into legally binding provisions.
The End of Multilingualism
The law’s most immediate impact is expected to occur in the classroom. According to Article 15 of the draft, children from ethnic minorities must begin learning Mandarin in kindergarten. This stands in sharp contrast to the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law passed in 1984, which promised that ethnic minorities could “use and develop their own spoken and written languages” and maintained flexibility regarding when to begin learning Mandarin.
This effectively declares the end of bilingual education at a legal level.
Furthermore, the law extends the reach of political loyalty into the home. Article 20 explicitly requires parents and guardians to take responsibility for “political education,” educating and guiding minors to “love the Chinese Communist Party” and strictly prohibiting the teaching of any concepts deemed “detrimental to ethnic unity and progress.”
“De-ethnicization” of Architecture, Symbols, and Place Names
Beyond education, Beijing is attempting to reshape the visual landscape of China’s frontiers. Article 14 of the draft requires all levels of government to “establish and highlight Chinese cultural symbols” in public facilities, architectural designs, and landscape displays. This means that in the future, traditional ethnic-style buildings and place names in regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang, or Inner Mongolia may face stricter scrutiny and replacement to align with a unified national narrative.
Legal Support for Transnational Repression
What alarms international legal scholars most is Article 61 of the draft. This article grants the Chinese government the right to hold individuals or organizations outside the country legally accountable for “damaging ethnic unity.”
This “long-arm jurisdiction” clause could become a new tool for Beijing to crack down on overseas exile groups and dissidents. It implies that acts of criticizing Beijing’s ethnic policies, even in Paris, New York, or Dharamsala, would be considered crimes under China’s legal framework, potentially leading to retaliation against relatives within China or the legal risk of transnational extradition.
Official Narrative vs. Reality Gap
CCP state media describes this law as a necessary measure to “implement the thinking on ethnic work in the new era,” claiming it aims to ensure long-term national stability. However, relevant human rights groups warn that this law marks the substantive demise of the “system of regional ethnic autonomy.”
For a long time, although China’s Constitution promises ethnic autonomy, in practice, Beijing’s control over ethnic minority regions has steadily intensified. Analysts believe the emergence of this new law extends the hardline assimilation policies tested over the past decade in Xinjiang and Tibet to the entire country, while cloaking future repression in the guise of “rule of law.”
As deliberations at the Two Sessions proceed, the law is expected to pass smoothly. For tens of millions of non-Han people living within China, this law may signify the severance of the last legal link to their own cultural heritage.
Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent for ChinaAid
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