China’s new ethnic unity law legalizing cultural ‘erasure’, minorities warn at UN
GENEVA: Tibetan and Uyghur representatives urged countries at a United Nations meeting last week to pressure China to repeal a new law they say is aimed at erasing minority communities.
The Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which comes into effect on July 1, aims to forge a “shared” national identity among ethnic groups and “strengthen cohesion.”
But rights advocates charge it has been shaped to provide Beijing with legal cover for pursuing long-existing policies of forced assimilation across the vast country with the Han majority.
Among other things, the law criminalizes engaging in “violent terrorist activities, ethnic separatist activities, or religious extremist activities.”
