China on Thursday passed a law on a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, a move critics say will further erode the identity of people who are not majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone who challenges that “unity” a separatist punishable by law.
Dubbed the “promotion of ethnic unity and progress”, the ethnic minority law aims to create national unity and promote the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at its core, a draft copy of the law showed.
It was passed at the closing session of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislative assembly, by a vote of 2,756, with three against and three abstentions, according to a Reuters witness.
The law will take effect on July 1 this year, state media reported.
Officially, China has 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, who account for more than 91% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
China’s ethnic minority populations—including Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchu, and Uighurs—are concentrated in regions that together cover about half of the country’s land area, much of which is rich in natural resources.
The law aims to promote integration across ethnic groups through education, housing, migration, community life, culture, tourism and development policy, the law states.
It mandates that Mandarin is the basic language of instruction in schools and for public and official businesses.
In public settings where Mandarin and minority languages are used together, Mandarin must be given “prominence in placement, order and similar respects,” the draft said.
“The state respects and protects the learning and use of minority languages and scripts,” it added.
Religious groups, religious schools and religious places must adhere to “the direction of the Sinicization of religion in China,” according to the draft.
The law also seeks to prohibit any interference in marriage choices based on ethnicity, custom or religion to allow for more interference between ethnic groups.
‘Integrate with the minority’
Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, said the law underscored a move toward assimilation.
“The law makes it clearer than ever that in President Xi Jinping’s China, non-Han people must do more to integrate with the Han majority and, above all else, be loyal to Beijing,” he said, referring to China by the initials of its official name.
Ethnic affairs are incorporated into China’s social governance system with clauses that include anti-separatism, border security, risk prevention and social stability.
An executive in the state-run China Daily newspaper said the law had followed a rigorous legislative process, going through multiple readings and consultations with lawmakers and representatives from ethnic minority communities.
“The law emphasizes the protection of cultural traditions and lifestyles of all ethnic groups… it is misleading to claim that ethnic minorities in China must choose between economic development and cultural preservation,” it said.
