China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress entered into force on 1 July 2026, codifying a legal obligation for all 56 state-recognised ethnic groups to forge a “shared” national identity and granting Beijing the authority to hold individuals and groups outside its borders accountable for acts deemed to undermine ethnic unity or incite separatism. The legislation mandates Mandarin as the official language, requires schools to instil a “strong sense of belonging to the Chinese people” and makes parents legally responsible for guiding children to “love the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people.”

Viewed from Washington and Brussels, the law represents an expansion of transnational repression. The US State Department described the statute as “problematic,” asserting that it compels people outside China to actively promote the party’s ethnic unity agenda or face retaliation. The European Union’s external action service warned that the law could further restrict the cultural, linguistic and religious rights of ethnic minorities. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for the law’s repeal, cautioning that it would curtail freedoms of language, culture and religion, while Amnesty International stated that it “further institutionalises policies of forced assimilation.”

Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun rejected the criticism as “malicious smearing” and interference in China’s internal affairs, arguing that strengthening the rule of law protects the rights and interests of all ethnic groups. Chinese officials point to economic development in minority regions and the preservation of minority languages as evidence of progress, and they frame the law as a tool to combat violent terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. According to government data, all 420 impoverished counties in ethnic-minority areas had been lifted out of absolute poverty by 2021.

In Taipei, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus proposed a legislative resolution condemning the law as an attempt to “use domestic legislation to infringe on the sovereignty and human rights of other countries” and to threaten Taiwanese citizens. The motion was voted off the agenda by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which the DPP characterised as collaboration with Beijing. The TPP caucus stated the vote concerned procedural agenda-setting, not the substance of the condemnation. With the law now in force, the next factual steps centre on its enforcement abroad and whether like-minded states will coordinate countermeasures, while the UN human rights machinery is expected to continue monitoring its impact on minority communities.