China Passes New Ethnic Minority Law, Prioritises Use of Mandarin

BEIJING (Reuters) - On Thursday 12 March 2026, China passed a law on a "shared" national identity among the country's 55 ethnic minority groups, a move critics say will further erode the identity of people who are not majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone challenging that "unity" a separatist punishable by law.

Called "Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress", the ethnic minority law aims to forge national unity and advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at its core, a draft copy of the law showed.

It was passed at the closing session of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's legislature by 2,756 votes, with three opposing votes and three abstentions, according to a Reuters witness.

Officially, China has 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, who account for more than 91% of the country's 1.4 billion people.

China's ethnic minority populations - including Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchus and Uyghurs - are concentrated in regions that together cover roughly half of the country's land area, much of it rich in natural resources.

The law aims to promote integration across ethnic groups through education, housing, migration, community life, culture, tourism and development policy, the law said.

It mandates that Mandarin is the basic language of instruction in schools, and for government and official business.

In public settings, where Mandarin and minority languages are used together, Mandarin must be given "prominence in placement, order, and similar respects", the draft said. "The state respects and protects the learning and use of minority languages and scripts," it added.

Religious groups, religious schools and religious venues must adhere "to the direction of the Sinicization of religion in China," according to the draft.

The law also seeks to ban any interference with marriage choices based on ethnicity, custom or religion to enable more intermarriage between ethnic groups.

"Integrate with the majority"

Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, said the law underlined a move towards assimilation.

"The law makes it clearer than ever that in President Xi Jinping's PRC non-Han peoples must do more to integrate themselves with the Han majority, and above all else be loyal to Beijing,” he said, referring to China by the initials for its official name.

Ethnic affairs are incorporated into China's social governance system, with clauses that include anti-separatism, border security, risk prevention and social stability.

Organisations and individuals outside China that carry out acts against the country "that undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic separatism shall be pursued for legal liability in accordance with the law", the draft said.

An editorial in state newspaper China Daily said that the law had followed a rigorous legislative process, been through multiple readings and consultations with lawmakers and representatives from ethnic minority communities.

"The law stresses the protection of cultural traditions and lifestyles of all ethnic groups... it is misleading to claim that ethnic minorities in China must choose between economic development and cultural preservation," it said.

Additional information: China's new ethnic unity law could target Taiwanese, Taipei officials warn

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The new Chinese law on ethnic unity could give Beijing another legal basis to go after Taiwanese it views as separatists given language it contains on protecting China's sovereignty and security, officials in Taipei say.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, already has laws and regulations against Taiwanese independence supporters, among them guidelines published in 2024 to punish "diehard" activists, including with the death penalty, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction on the island.

The new law, passed by China's largely rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, aims to create a "shared" national identity among the country's 55 ethnic minority groups, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs. It does not directly mention Taiwan, whose people Beijing considers Chinese citizens, apart from a brief mention of a need to encourage people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to identify as being Chinese. But it does say Chinese citizens "shall protect the country's sovereignty" and cites President Xi Jinping as saying everyone has to "consciously uphold national unity, national security and social stability."

Shen Yu-chung, a deputy minister at Taiwan's China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council, told reporters in Taipei shortly before the law was passed in Beijing that such language could "spill over into becoming a legal basis for handling cross-Strait issues." Asked whether it could be used as a basis for targeting those China views as supporters of Taiwan independence, he said: "It is highly possible." Shen added: "How exactly one is supposed to promote unification or promote unity is left vague and hollow, but the punishments are concrete."

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Fears of "long-arm jurisdiction"

Taiwan has long complained about what the government calls Chinese "lawfare" against the island: passing laws to give a legal basis for targeting those it believes are separatists, including overseas.

The new law includes another clause saying people and groups beyond the borders of the People's Republic of China can be held legally accountable for undermining "ethnic unity and progress or inciting ethnic separatism."

"Many of the Chinese communists' actions are nominally presented as measures for maintaining domestic stability, but in reality they could also be transformed into long-arm jurisdiction," Shen said, referring to Chinese efforts to enforce its laws overseas.

Taiwanese officials say the new law represents a shift in tactics from Beijing: whereas previously Chinese legislation was about opposing certain beliefs, like Taiwan independence, now it threatens punishment if people do not actively promote China's unity.

"In the past, you'd be punished for supporting Taiwan independence. Now, you also have to actively support unification, or you'll get into trouble as well," one senior Taiwanese official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter.