54 human rights and diaspora organisations warn China’s Ethnic Unity Law threatens freedoms worldwide
Today, Hong Kong Watch led a coalition of 54 human rights and diaspora organisations from around the world – including Hong Kong, Uyghur, Tibetan and Taiwanese groups – in condemning the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, or EUPL), which took effect on 1 July 2026.
In a joint statement, the groups warned that the EUPL represents a major escalation in the Chinese government’s efforts to impose a state-defined national identity across ethnic communities and entrench Chinese Communist Party ideology in education systems in China and Hong Kong.
The statement also raises alarm over the law’s sweeping extraterritorial reach, underscoring the risk that it could be used to criminalise organisations and individuals beyond the PRC’s borders. Signatories noted that this follows a broader pattern of transnational repression under Hong Kong’s 2020 National Security Law and the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, both of which have been used to intimidate and prosecute Hong Kong pro-democracy activists overseas.
The coalition urged international governments and institutions to publicly condemn the EUPL and its extraterritorial application, strengthen legal protections for diaspora communities against transnational repression, investigate incidents of cross-border intimidation, monitor and report on the EUPL’s implementation and impacts, and stand in solidarity with communities affected by the legislation worldwide.
You can read the full statement here.
54個人權及離散族群組織發表聲明 警告中國《民族團結進步促進法》威脅全球自由
香港監察今日帶領世界各地54個人權及離散族群組織，包括香港、維吾爾、西藏和台灣團體，發表聯合聲明。聲明譴責中國實施《民族團結進步促進法》，法例在2026年7月1日生效。
聯署團體在聯合聲明中警告，《民族團結進步促進法》反映了中國政府正進一步向不同族裔群體強制推行國家定義的國民身分認同，並將中國共產黨的意識形態灌輸到中國和香港的教育制度中。
聲明亦對新法的廣泛域外效力條款表示擔憂，強調條款有機會被用來將中國境外的組織和人士定罪。聯署團體指出，這與根據香港2020年《國家安全法》和2024年《維護國家安全條例》（俗稱「23條」）施行跨國鎮壓的廣泛模式如出一轍，兩項法例均被用來恐嚇和起訴海外香港民主活動人士。
聯署組織促請各國政府和機構公開譴責《民族團結進步促進法》及其域外效力，加強對離散族群免受跨國鎮壓的法律保障，調查跨境恐嚇事件，監察和報告《民族團結進步促進法》的實施情況和影響，並與世界各地受法例影響的族群站在同一陣線。
你可在這裏閱讀聲明全文。
Photo: ID 18592954, China © Hou Guima, Dreamstime.com