For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed ethnic minority groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs to adopt an identity rooted in Chinese nationality and allegiance to the ruling Communist Party.

Now, that push has been codified into a sweeping new law that reaches into classrooms, neighborhoods and homes – and gives Beijing the right to target people outside of its borders that it believes violate its rules.

The statute, officially known as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, came into effect on July 1. It bans acts that “undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division” among China’s 56 officially recognized ethnicities, which include a Han Chinese majority that makes up over 90% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

  • Kobibi@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    2 days ago

    In Wales and Ireland the native languages were deliberately subjugated, and are only recently being deliberately re-prioritised. It’s a sore point among both populaces

    So to compare the amount of speakers pre and post language erasure isn’t that helpful I don’t think

    • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.ukEnglish
      39·
      2 days ago

      Doesn’t mean China will necessarily subjugate and erase them though. Minority languages can still be seen represented across China, even on the banknotes. As well as celebrating ethnic minorities, united under the five-starred red flag. It’s likely an effort to just make mandarin a first language.