A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a resolution condemning China's new ethnic unity law, warning that it serves as a legal tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to suppress ethnic minorities at home and pursue critics overseas under the guise of promoting national unity.
Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the resolution, which condemns a Chinese law called “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress,” which will go into effect on July 1.
The senators stated in the resolution that China should repeal the legislation.
“The CCP’s new ethnic conformity law signals an escalation in Beijing’s longstanding campaign to erase the cultural identities of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other minorities—all while giving the CCP a pretext to intimidate critics far beyond China’s borders,” Curtis said in a statement on June 26.
“As leader of the free world, the United States must stand firmly with those facing persecution and make clear that the CCP’s efforts to export repression, silence those who speak out about its human rights abuses, and undermine our sovereignty will not be tolerated.”
China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, approved the law in March to create a “shared” national identity among the country’s diverse ethnic groups. The law calls for the use of Mandarin, the country’s designated national common language, in education as part of that effort.
The senators argued the law's reach extends well beyond its text. According to the resolution, the law “institutionalizes and expands coercive assimilation and cultural erasure policies directed toward Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other groups. ”
It also codifies the CCP’s sinicization campaigns that require schools, religious establishments, and cultural organizations to “align their activities with Party-mandated ideology,” according to the resolution.
Under the law, expressions deemed to “undermine ethnic unity” or “create ethnic division” can be subject to criminal penalties, the resolution stated.
Rosen and Banks both warned that the law has implications beyond China’s borders.
“This new law doesn’t only threaten those within China, but also those living outside its borders,” Rosen said in a statement.
Banks called the law “a blatant attempt to enforce Chinese law on American shores,” according to a statement.
The law contains a clause saying that organizations and individuals beyond China’s borders can be held legally accountable for “undermining ethnic unity and progress” or “inciting ethnic separatism.”
The senators pointed out that China is already “expanding” transnational repression, conducting “illegal overseas police operations,” and asserting extraterritorial claims. Coupled with the law, they said, the CCP “poses a growing threat to the United States and its allies,” according to the resolution.
“As long as the People’s Republic of China continues to bulldoze the human rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other vulnerable groups, the United States must do everything we can to call out this systemic abuse, protect religious freedom, and defend the rights of China’s ethnic minorities,” Merkley said in a statement on June 26.
“Our bipartisan resolution rejects the PRC’s efforts both to codify coercive assimilation and cultural erasure and to expand those policies beyond its borders through transnational repression,” Merkley added, using the acronym of China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The resolution called on the U.S. State Department to work with allies, including Australia, Canada, Japan, the European Union, and the UK, to “monitor and report on the impacts” of the law.
It also urged the U.S. president to consider targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act against individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations under the law.
In China, Hu Weilie, vice minister of the Chinese regime’s justice ministry, defended the law at a press conference on June 24, accusing certain Western media of having misinterpreted the law’s overseas effects. Hu characterized the law as “consistent with international practice.”
On June 25, Liang Wen-chieh, spokesperson and deputy head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said during a press conference in Taipei that Hu’s remarks would not alleviate concerns raised by some countries about the law.
Liang added that the law contains vaguely defined provisions and is intended to "threaten and intimidate."
Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, said the law would allow China to “engage in transnational repression of dissent regardless of nationality,” according to his X post on June 26.
“It’s oppression on a global scale & constitutes a crime against humanity,” Wu wrote.
On April 30, the European Union adopted a resolution condemning the law and asking China to repeal it. It says the law “openly promotes assimilation policies and restricts the cultural, religious, and linguistic freedoms of various groups within China and beyond.”
Reuters contributed to this report.