Overview
- China’s National People’s Congress passed the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress on March 12 by a vote of 2,756 to three, with three abstentions.
- Article 15 requires Mandarin instruction from preschool through the end of compulsory education, and the law makes Mandarin the basic language for official business and public settings.
- The statute allows authorities to pursue legal liability for individuals and organizations outside China accused of undermining ethnic unity or promoting separatism, prompting Taipei to warn it could be used against Taiwanese.
- The law embeds integration policies across housing, migration and community planning, promotes intermarriage, gives Mandarin visual prominence where minority languages appear, and allows penalties for parents deemed to instill “detrimental” views.
- UN human rights chief Volker Türk and groups including Human Rights Watch and the World Uyghur Congress warn the measure codifies assimilation and could intensify restrictions on Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian cultural and religious life.