“Ethical unity”: China increases pressure on minorities

The cultural independence of groups like Uighurs or Tibetans be further undermined and criminalized as separatism. The proposed law stipulates, among other things, that Standard Chinese (Mandarin) must have priority over the languages ​​of minorities in public life and in schools. Religious groups and schools are obliged to submit to Sinicization – that is, adapting to Chinese traditions and socialist values.

In addition, marriages between different ethnic groups should be encouraged and obstacles based on customs or religion should be removed. The law also stipulates that organizations or individuals abroad can be legally prosecuted if they undermine “ethnic unity.”

Assimilation under stricter conditions

Experts see the move as a tightening of the assimilation policy under the head of the state and the Communist Party Xi Jinping. The law makes it clearer than ever that non-Han peoples have to integrate and, above all, show loyalty to Beijing, said Allen Carlson from Cornell University in the US. The state-run newspaper China Daily rejected criticism and emphasized in an editorial that the law protects cultural traditions. It is misleading to claim that minorities have to choose between economic development and cultural preservation.

Uyghurs, members of other minorities and human rights organizations have been reporting for years that hundreds of thousands of people in Xinjiang have been put into re-education camps against their will, in some cases tortured and forced into forced labor. The Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama, has accused Beijing of the most serious human rights violations in his homeland for decades, including forced abortions and forced sterilizations as well as “cultural genocide” through massive population transfers.