This week, China’s National People’s Congress is expected to pass a new “Ethnic Unity” law that moves away from regional ethnic autonomy toward a nationwide framework that prioritizes Mandarin and Han cultural norms.
Magnus Fiskesjö is an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University who studies ethnic relations and political anthropology in China and Southeast Asia.
Fiskesjö says: “The Chinese constitution says clearly (General Principles, Article 4): ‘All ethnic groups shall have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages.’ The new law now to be enacted, ‘Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress,’ openly contradicts the constitution.
“The law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift, to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognized since 1949. The next step may be the formal abolishment of ‘ethnic minorities’ as such — as long advocated by radical elements inside the Chinese regime.
“This is already being put in practice through measures such as the mass family separations in the Uyghur and Tibetan regions and beyond. The children of the next generation are now isolated and brutally forced to forget their own language and culture — an openly genocidal policy directly parallel to the atrocious Indian boarding schools of North America's past.”
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Allen Carlson is an associate professor of government at Cornell and an expert on Chinese foreign policy.
Carlson says: “The People's Republic of China (PRC) is a multi-ethnic state, in which the super majority ethnicity, the Han Chinese, comprise over 90% of the total population, but the other ethnic groups, most notably Tibetans and Uyghurs, constitute the majority in crucially important frontier regions.
“Beijing's approach to governing these non-Han ethnicities has been unwavering since 1949. They must support the PRC's national unity and bolster its territorial integrity. The way Beijing has ensured such a commitment has varied. There have been periods when emphasis was placed on respecting the autonomy of non-Han peoples. But more often, a premium has been placed on assimilation. This has been especially so over the last decade.
“If approved, the ‘Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress’ law will further entrench this trend by placing an even greater emphasis on 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.”
