Is China’s new law ‘ethnic unity’ or ethnic supremacy?

The country has adopted a sweeping new law that orders government agencies, private enterprises and parents to foster a “stronger sense of community among all ethnic groups” in the nation, said Lou Qinjian, a delegate to the National People’s Congress, at multiple outlets. The new “ethnic unity” mandate may sound benign, but critics say it could erase and diminish the cultural identities of Uyghurs, Mongolians and other minority groups in favor of the country’s dominant Han Chinese culture.

Binding minorities to the majority

Beijing wants China’s ethnic minorities to “blend in,” said The New York Times. Xi Jinping has “worked aggressively” during his decade in power to pressure minorities in Tibet and elsewhere to “identify first and foremost as patriotic citizens.” The new law furthers that mission with provisions that “touch on education, housing policy, entertainment and other areas” to create a “single national identity” forged by the Chinese Communist Party.

It orders that the Mandarin Chinese language be used in school instruction and other official business and that different ethnicities should live in mixed communities. The goal is to “bind China’s minorities” to the majority Han Chinese population, said the Times. The law tells non-Han Chinese to “integrate themselves with the Han majority and above all else be loyal to Beijing,” said Allen Carlson, of Cornell University, to Bloomberg.

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There are 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China, and “55 are getting squashed” by the new law, said The Economist. The edict is “born of fear” that minority groups are “proving too hard to control.” Early Communist governments allowed minority groups a “range of privileges” to follow their own religions and educate children in their native languages. But “outbursts of violence” over decades in Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia persuaded leaders that “even relative autonomy had failed.” The question now is whether the mandate might provoke resentments that may “eventually erupt.”

Cracking down

China started its Sinicization of minority groups in the late 2000s, said BBC News. Monks have been arrested in Tibet, Uyghur Muslims have been sent to reeducation camps, and Mongolians have battled authorities to preserve the right to teach children their language. The law is the latest attempt to “cement Xi’s push toward assimilation” of minority groups.

Beijing’s apparent view is that “minority languages and cultures are backward and impediments to advancement,” said Ian Chong, of the National University of Singapore, to the BBC. Xi is trying to build a “great and strong Chinese nation with a northern Han core.”

Chinese officials say the law was drafted after consultation with “representatives from ethnic minority communities,” said Reuters. The rules emphasize the “protection of cultural traditions and lifestyles of all ethnic groups,” said an editorial in China Daily, the state newspaper. Minority groups like the Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchus and Uyghurs comprise less than 10% of China’s population, said Reuters, but they live mostly in “regions that together cover roughly half of the country’s land area, much of it rich in natural resources.”