For Tibetans, China’s ethnic minorities law is assimilation dressed up as ‘unity’

On 1 July 2026, China’s National People’s Congress enacted the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, a 65-article statute passed in March by a near-unanimous vote. Beijing presents it as a modernising measure meant to bind the country’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups into what officials call ‘a strong sense of community for the Chinese…