China’s new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress has been in effect for more than one month. Beijing claims the law will foster cohesion and protect the rights of minorities. In reality, it is already doing the opposite. One month in, the law is already harming Uyghurs and other ethnic groups and dissidents. Governments must take decisive action to challenge the law and protect diaspora communities before it is too late.
As numerous sources have warned, the new law codifies a dramatic shift away from even the promise of regional autonomy, instead embedding Xi Jinping’s campaign of forced assimilation into nearly every facet of government and public life. In doing so, the law violates China’s own constitution.
For Uyghurs, this is not new. In 2017, a Chinese official summarized the government’s strategy toward Uyghurs: “Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins.”
Since then, Chinese authorities have systematically dismantled Uyghur social, cultural, and religious life in what the United States government and numerous national parliaments have formally recognized as genocide and crimes against humanity. The indoctrination Uyghurs faced in internment camps, where authorities sought to replace Islam and Uyghur identity with loyalty to the CCP, is now imposed in daily life across the Uyghur homeland of East Turkestan.
