China enacted a law called the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, also referred to as the ethnic unity law, which came into effect on July 1 2026.

Rights groups, Taiwan, the United Nations and other overseas critics warned that the law could threaten the freedoms of Uyghurs and Tibetans and could lead to forced assimilation.

The law is said to have extraterritorial reach, allowing Beijing to target people outside its borders. Accounts differ on whether this constitutes extraterritorial repression: some sources say the law enables such repression, while the Chinese government says the law is not a tool of transnational repression.

According to the Hindu, the law aims to forge a shared national identity among ethnic groups and to strengthen Mandarin as the official language. The New York Times reported that Xi Jinping voted on the law and that the Communist Party under his leadership has become increasingly intolerant of criticism of its treatment of ethnic minorities. The South China Morning Post reported that the law is not a tool of transnational repression and that it stands alongside the 1984 Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy as a foundational, comprehensive statute on ethnic affairs.