China’s Ethnic Unity Law threatens Hong Kongers and diasporas worldwide
On Wednesday 1 July, the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law or “EUPL”) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) came into force.
The move was widely criticised by overseas activists and NGOs, including Hong Kong Watch Chair and co-founder Benedict Rogers and Patron Miriam Lexmann MEP, as well as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, US lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. On Thursday, Tibetan exile Pawo Logba Rangzen died in a self-immolation protest against the Law outside the UN Headquarters, the first such protest on US soil. On Friday 3 July, PRC spokesman Guo Jiakun rejected criticisms of the law, calling such criticisms an attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs.
The EUPL aims to forge a “shared” national identity among the PRC’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, placing a heavy emphasis on Mandarin as the language of education from preschool to university level, and promoting the history, values, and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) within schools. This even extends to parents, which under Article 20 of the EUPL have an obligation to “guid[e] minors to love the Chinese Communist Party, Motherland, people [人民], and the Chinese people [中华民族]”.
The EUPL places further emphasis on Patriotic Education reforms in the Hong Kong SAR, stating under Article 21 that the state shall guide Hong Kong residents to “consciously preserve the nation’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.” These measures are further to the national-level 2023 Patriotic Education Law and 2021 reforms to Hong Kong’s schools to promote “national security education”.
The Law also contains vague and sweeping provisions criminalising “Acts that undermine ethnic unity and create ethnic division”. Under Article 63, these provisions apply to organisations and individuals outside the territory of the PRC, a feature reminiscent of the extraterritoriality clauses of the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law and the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
Hong Kong Watch strongly condemns the introduction of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law as a troubling development in Beijing’s increasingly ethno-nationalist rhetoric and policymaking towards its border regions, its cultural and linguistic minorities, and its neighbouring countries.
Megan Khoo, Policy Director at Hong Kong Watch, said:
“We condemn the extraterritorial application of this law as a clear act of transnational repression, aiming to intimidate overseas ethnic minority diasporas as well as NGOs, pro-democracy Taiwanese, and other opponents of authoritarian rule. We urge lawmakers around the world to issue condemnations of this law, and to introduce protections against the transnational repression of Hong Kongers, other diaspora communities, exiled activists, and human rights defenders.”
Photo: Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra on Unsplash