Advocacy organization Tibet Action Institute (TAI) has strongly condemned the passage of China’s new “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress,” warning that the legislation formalizes policies that could accelerate the erasure of Tibetan identity, language, and culture.
China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), approved the law during the closing session of its annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing on Thursday. The law, which codifies Beijing’s approach to ethnic governance under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026.
Rights Group Warns of Formalized Assimilation Policies
In a statement issued shortly after the legislation was adopted, TAI said the new law effectively legalizes policies already underway in Tibet and other minority regions that critics say are designed to forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities into the dominant Han Chinese culture.
“The Chinese government just passed a law authorizing genocide in Tibet,” said Lhadon Tethong, Director of the Tibet Action Institute. “The new law should be seen for what it is: a legal framework for policies already underway, like the coercive system of colonial boarding schools in Tibet, that aim to eradicate Tibetans’ identity as a people.”
TAI has been among the most prominent organizations documenting China’s residential boarding school system in Tibet, which it says has separated nearly a million Tibetan children from their families and placed them in state-run institutions where Mandarin Chinese is the primary language of instruction and political indoctrination is part of the curriculum.
Measures Seen as Directly Affecting Tibetan Language and Culture
According to TAI, the newly adopted law codifies several measures that directly threaten Tibetan culture and linguistic rights. One of its key provisions requires Mandarin Chinese to be used in official communication and education, weakening the already limited protections for minority languages previously recognized under China’s Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law of 1984.
The legislation also includes provisions encouraging intermarriage between Han Chinese and non-Han ethnic groups, mandating that families and schools instill loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party in children, and requiring different ethnic groups to live in mixed residential communities to promote integration.
TAI warned that the law further empowers authorities to prosecute individuals accused of instilling views deemed harmful to “ethnic unity.” According to the organization, such provisions could potentially criminalize Tibetan parents who advocate for education in the Tibetan language or who seek to preserve their cultural and religious traditions.
“The legalization of the Chinese Communist Party’s policies of forced assimilation intensifies the threat to Tibetan identity and way of life,” the group said. “It provides a legal basis for criminalizing Tibetans who actively engage with their language, religion and customs.”
UN Experts Raise Alarm
TAI’s statement also referenced a recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, presented during the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, which examined China’s policies affecting Tibetan language and identity.
The report described China’s residential boarding school system in Tibet as part of a process that could lead to the “extermination” of a minority group, warning that the policies appear aimed at erasing Tibetan language and identity by disrupting the intergenerational transmission of culture and tradition.
The rapporteur further argued that such policies could qualify as genocide under international law and urged the international community to address the issue with greater urgency.
Beijing Defends the Law
Chinese authorities, however, maintain that the law is intended to strengthen national cohesion and promote what Beijing calls a “shared sense of community for the Chinese nation.” Officials say the legislation is designed to foster development, integration, and common prosperity among China’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups.
However, scholars and human rights organizations argue that the new legislation marks a significant shift away from earlier policies that nominally recognized limited ethnic autonomy and language rights. Instead, they say, the law entrenches a framework that prioritizes assimilation into a unified national identity centered on loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
Critics warn that the law’s implementation could further accelerate the erosion of Tibetan cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions, deepening concerns about the long-term survival of Tibet’s distinct identity under Chinese rule.
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