For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed ethnic minority groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs to adopt an identity rooted in Chinese nationality and allegiance to the ruling Communist Party.

Now, that push has been codified into a sweeping new law that reaches into classrooms, neighborhoods and homes – and gives Beijing the right to target people outside of its borders that it believes violate its rules.

The statute, officially known as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, came into effect on July 1. It bans acts that “undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division” among China’s 56 officially recognized ethnicities, which include a Han Chinese majority that makes up over 90% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

  • zbyte64@awful.systemsEnglish
    11·
    14 hours ago

    The excellent traditional cultures of all ethnic groups are integral parts of Chinese culture. The State upholds the guidance of advanced socialist culture in the creative transformation and innovative development of the excellent traditional cultures of all ethnic groups, and supports the promotion and dissemination of excellent traditional Chinese culture. The State respects and guarantees the learning and use of the languages ​​and scripts of ethnic minorities, promotes their standardization and the development of their information technology capabilities, and supports the preservation, compilation, research, and utilization of ancient texts belonging to ethnic minorities.