Global condemnation of China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law (EUPL) is growing ahead of its July 1 entry into force, with U.S. lawmakers advancing three bipartisan congressional measures urging the repeal of the law and calling on the State Department to formally condemn it as a tool of transnational repression and forced assimilation of Tibetans, Uyghurs and other non-Chinese nationalities.
The EUPL codifies Beijing’s forced assimilation of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other minority ethnic and faith communities, and further extend the Chinese Communist Party’s tactics of transnational repression. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk recently called for the law to be repealed, and amid other calls denouncing the law, the U.S. Congress is similarly signaling strong disapproval and calling for its repeal with a Senate resolution and two joint letters – one by U.S. Senators to the Chinese Ambassador and the other by U.S. House Representatives to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We welcome the bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress and thank the lawmakers for taking decisive actions to oppose China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law. These measures reflect growing international recognition of the grave implications of this repressive new law that is designed to institutionalize the forced assimilation of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other non-Chinese peoples under Communist Party rule,” said Tencho Gyatso, President of the International Campaign for Tibet.
“We urge the U.S. State Department to press the Chinese government repeal this dangerous new law that threatens to erase the Tibetan people’s distinct identity and culture, and call for a coordinated global response to ensure that laws designed to carry out cultural genocide do not become accepted as the global norm,” she continued.
Senate letter and resolution
In the Senate, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent a letter to Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng on June 25 voicing their grave concern with the law and urging the Chinese government to rescind or significantly revise the law.
“We are deeply troubled by the codification of the CCP’s longstanding practices to extinguish religious freedom,” Graham and Whitehouse write, “including restrictions on worship, forced ideological instruction, and pressure on communities to abandon or dilute their faith traditions. These practices affect Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and many others – under the guise of combatting extremism and/or preventing separatism.”
The next day, Senators Jackie Rosen (D-NV), John Curtis (R-UT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the EUPL. S.Res.791 warns about the EUPL’s impact on the survival of Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian identity, among others, and calls on the Chinese government to repeal the law.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues to violate the rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other minority groups in China with its horrendous attempts at cultural and religious erasure. This new law doesn’t only threaten those within China, but also those living outside its borders,” said Senator Rosen in a statement, while Senator Curtis added that the law “signals an escalation in Beijing’s longstanding campaign to erase the cultural identities of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other minorities—all while giving the CCP a pretext to intimidate critics far beyond China’s borders.”
Senator Merkley states that the resolution “rejects the PRC’s efforts both to codify coercive assimilation and cultural erasure and to expand those policies beyond its borders through transnational repression,” and Senator Banks says he is “proudly standing with my colleagues in condemning the abuses of the CCP and standing up for human rights.”
House letter
In the House of Representatives, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Ro Khanna (D-CA) led a joint letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the Department of State to respond to the EUPL.
McGovern, Smith, and Khanna warn that China’s law “codifies and expands the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of forced assimilation against Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and other non-Han Chinese communities,” and urge Secretary Rubio to “condemn the law as a tool of forced assimilation, ideological control, and transnational repression.”
The letter was co-signed by Representatives Michael T. McCaul (R-TX), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Jonathan L. Jackson (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Johnny Olszewski, Jr. (D-MD), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), Thomas R. Suozzi (D-NY), and James R. Walkinshaw (D-VA).