Beijing, Aug 7 (IANS) The international community must make efforts to challenge China’s new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress to protect diaspora communities, as the legislation, which came into effect on July 1, has already started harming Uyghurs, other ethnic groups and dissidents, a report has detailed.
Under the new law, schools, religious institutions, all levels of government, and families are responsible for instilling and implementing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) definition of “ethnic unity.”
It also states that parents need to educate and guide children to love the CCP, replace bilingual education with Mandarin starting in preschool, and religious institutions to continue making efforts for the “Sinicisation” of religion. In simple words, all the children in China need to love the CCP, Mandarin language must be spoken and any faith is allowed only when it is reshaped to serve the state, a report in ‘The Diplomat’ mentioned.
The impact of the law is visible in China as videos posted on social media platforms in China show Uyghur-language signs being removed from city streets and replaced with Chinese. Uyghurs are not able to resist or express sadness over these developments as CCP cadres monitor their actions. Any negative comment would be considered resistance to “ethnic unity”, resulting in the individual facing risk of questioning and arrest.
Just three days after the law came into effect, two Uyghur sisters and their mother in China were reportedly detained for sending merchandise to another sister in Turkey. They were accused of “supporting terrorism” for helping their sister with business.
People living abroad also face danger due to the new unity law implemented in China. Under Article 63 of the law, organisations and individuals living abroad can be pursued for activities that China believes undermine ethnic unity or cause ethnic division, according to the report.
Uyghurs and others with ties to East Turkestan living in Kazakhstan have reported “feeling the pressure” since the law was implemented in China. Prominent Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa was recently arrested and deported from Morocco while travelling to participate in a religious freedom conference. These cases showcase how China is pressurising other nations to restrict or intimidate Uyghurs.
“The damage caused by China’s ethnic unity law is no longer hypothetical. Governments must respond with urgency before forced assimilation and transnational repression become even more deeply entrenched,” Omer Kanat, Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, mentioned in ‘The Diplomat’.
In July, over 50 Uyghur civil society organisations strongly condemned China’s Law on the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Progress and urged the international community to take meaningful action to repeal the legislation.
According to a joint statement, the law is not a “technical administrative measure” but a “legislative instrument of forced assimilation”. It noted that the legislation explicitly conflates the Chinese nation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and demands that ethnic groups abandon their distinct identities in favour of loyalty to the Party, the Han-defined “motherland,” and “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.”
Under this framework, the organisations said, the Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other non-Han identities are permitted to exist only insofar as they are absorbed into a single, CCP-defined Chinese nation.
–IANS
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