[Opinion] 'Ethnic Unity Law': China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth
cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56159234
Op-ed by Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada.
On July 1, China brought into force its Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, converting a decade of Xi Jinping’s doctrine of “forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation” into binding law.
Most attention has gone to its domestic machinery: entrenching Mandarin over minority languages, unified state textbooks and “inter-embedded” neighbourhoods engineered to dilute concentrations of Uyghurs and Tibetans among the Han majority. In other words, this is an assimilationist project that’s already far advanced.
The provision that matters most to the world outside China is buried near the end. Article 63 declares that organizations and individuals outside Chinese territory who “undermine ethnic unity” or “create ethnic division” shall be pursued for legal liability.
The Chinese government is therefore asserting, in statute, that its authority follows its critics across oceans into other countries, including Canada, home to some of the world’s largest Chinese, Uyghur and Tibetan diaspora communities. The danger is not that the law reaches across borders. It is what it criminalizes, whom it targets and how it’s enforced.
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The intimidation inherent in the new law already violates many domestic harassment and foreign interference laws in jurisdictions around the world. Prosecutors, here, should use them against the agents carrying out the coercion, not the exiles who are its victims.
Governments should shut the unlicensed “police stations,” and press Interpol to reject politically motivated notices aimed at diaspora activists.
Governments can also build dedicated channels for those targeted: a clear law enforcement contact, protective guidance for Chinese and minority diaspora communities and training for officers who could mistake transnational repression for an ordinary domestic dispute.
Finally, asylum systems should treat Article 63 as evidence: a statute in which China announces that diaspora advocacy invites retaliation is close to proof of persecution for those seeking to flee.
China has every right to legislate for its own territory and citizens. What it cannot legitimately do, however warmly it speaks of unity, is disregard borders. The task for all nations, Canada included, is to insist, in law and in practice, that borders still exist.
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![[Opinion] 'Ethnic Unity Law': China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth](https://images.theconversation.com/files/750377/original/file-20260727-57-4at0mb.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&rect=0%2C1549%2C9280%2C4640&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop)
https://theconversation.com/china-is-claiming-the-right-to-punish-its-critics-anywhere-on-earth-288175Open linkView original on mander.xyz
63 replies
Fuck China. Free Tibet.
Mao already did. You mean you want to give the Lamas back their slaves?
Jesus Christ get some help
Explain to me how erasure of an ethic identity is not considered ethnic cleansing?
And when you realize you can't, then explain to me why I, as a citizen of another country, should uphold your law designed to ethnically cleanse your nation within my borders?
Because ethnic cleansing is a shitty euphemism designed by people who wanted an excuse for inaction, not a real thing.
Did you mean 'genocide'?
When speaking to the oppressor, its best to do so in their language lest your intent be lost in translation or to a knee-jerk rejection based on the implications of a particular term.
The question was not directed to Australians nor to fellow travelers such as yourself, rather to the various operatives of the CCP that are likely monitoring this post.
They've yet to reply at the time of this writing... better hurry up Xinne the Pooh, my popcorn is getting cold.
Looks like Pooh’s ass-kisser is too busy arguing semantics in another comment thread. I’m sure they’ll notice you eventually though.
"in a bid to not be outdone by Israel"
Or the united states tax service
Inb4 the ml users start trying to tell me how this is actually very pro-democracy and the highest form of freedom
But I thought China was a bastion of free speech and other personal freedoms? By how a large portion of people on Lemmy behave you may believe it's a communist utopia.
Who said that China is free speech?
Pro China advocates will more so claim that any negative news about china is western fear mongering and incorrect. They won't ever say directly that China has free speech. They'll just dance around such subjects with nonsense endlessly and then call in all their buddies to downvote you to hell.
You can post a uncontroversial opinion in the wrong instance and go from 2-3 points to -8 with a paragraph telling you how wrong and stupid you are.
I though the west was the bastion of free speech yet they abuse terrorist laws to suppress anti colonization activists and groups or when the protest threaten the system itself
Nice whataboutism you got there.
Cool another hypocrite.
Or maybe just stay on topic?
I am on topic
No you brought up off topic subjects to make an off topic point about hypocrisy because you got all butthurt about justified criticism of China.
The article discusses China's crackdown on diversity and multiculturalism, and the title explicitly shows that China is open about doing so. Because the article also mentions certain actions taken by Western countries against war criminals, I am not off-topic for mentioning that. Whataboutism occurs if my intention is to deflect from the fact that China does not respect human rights. However, if I recognize the awful things China does while also pointing out Western double standards, it is not whataboutism . I am simply exposing hypocrisy.
"What about ..."
This is the other popular tactic that is used. Instead of staying on topic we bring up issues in other countries or regions. It's like when a kid gets in trouble and they go "mom Sally was stealing cookies yesterday". It's even more disheartening to watch adults try and play those childhood games.
Don't expect me to stay on the topic when your comment is off topic in relation to this post. Like usual exposing hypocrisy is treated as whataboutism by bad faith users like you
Then finally the classic "it's not me it's you". I was talking about China, you're talking about whatever else. I believe your comment is more descriptive of your behaviors than my own.
I am talking about your flagrant hypocrisy it is badnwhen china pretend to care about human rights, it also bad when the west does it
Yeah, that's you being a hypocrite here because everybody else acknowledges it's bad when the west does it too, but you can't be happy until nothing but bad things western countries have done are in focus and there's silence around the countries you favor. You don't think equal criticism is fair.
A comment about China's stance on free speech is off topic from an article about China looking to persecute for speech it doesn't like?
What would be an example of an on topic comment then?
The article does not mention any Chinese officials claiming China is respecting free speech. It mentions some western selective care about it, though. And the user I am replying to is just rage baiting
I'm not asking who was quoted as saying what in the article, I'm asking how that comment is off-topic from the article.
This article seems to be about China and it punishing speech. So how does that comment get away from the article so much that it's off-topic?
Also you may want to re-read what it mentions about Western countries because it's not talking about their respect of free speech.
Again it is not and it is even more relevant to the comment i replied to.
Why so many idiots keep reading my comments partially. I explained it in my previous comment how.
This article and discussion are about China. If you want to discuss the behavior of a different country, start a new post for it.
If you don't like what i say fuck off. The article mention europe so yes i think my comment is relevant
Your previous comment is pure, transparent whataboutism and brings nothing of value to this discussion.
It would be if it was to deflect from the fact that china do not respect human rights but no i acknowledge it. I am just showing you hypocrites
And this is why as a Chinese person I'm too scared to ever visit China. There's a nonzero chance I'd be detained for my online speech.
How many of the people operating these unlicensed police stations have been charged and arrested for kidnapping or attempted kidnapping? The people working these are members of an organized crime outfit. They need to be treated as such. Yet whenever I hear of them being shut down, the thugs working them just seem to get deported.
If you're gonna roll up to a Chinese embassy and start arresting people based on spurious BS and believing your own propaganda, I don't get why you don't just say to launch the nukes and try to get first strike. If you're gonna start WWIII for literally no reason, why not just do it instead of all this bizarre posturing?
Maybe I should just start running a police station out of my house, arresting people on crimes I've invented, and imprison them in my basement.
If you're doing law enforcement with no legal authority, you're literally just kidnapping people.
I imagine that if you did that, there'd probably be, you know,
evidence.Maybe my neighbor is doing exactly what you said. I guess I should just call in a SWAT team to kick in his door based on that possibility.
You're just a Republican shouting fake news at stories you don't like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_service_stations
I just really feel like you haven't actually read the article, or at least applied any critical thought to it. The article doesn't contain even allegations of kidnapping and imprisonment, just harassment, and, well, I think the quote speaks for itself. This is what people mean when they say your sinophobia isn't actually based in any evidence, just fear mongering.
Republican is when anyone disagrees with you for literally any reason. There are two types of people on planet Earth: people who think exactly the same way as you, huff your farts, and agree with every single word that comes out of your mouth, and Republicans.
God, y'all are insufferable.
Meanwhile, you're out here actually falling for the same kind of obvious bullshit your Red MAGA counterparts do, but it's about the evil foreign CCP rather than Planned Parenthood or ACORN so that makes you totally different.
fart noises
China will punish racism as a crime.
But at what cost?!?
It's very funny that the article goes out of it's way to say like, "The West never does things like this" because it means y'all don't get to accuse me of "whataboutism."
The US literally asserts the jurisdiction to bomb any country on earth if a secret, unelected, totally unaccountable domestic court determinines the country is harboring "terrorists," a nebulus term which has now been expanded to mean anyone who doesn't like fascism or doesn't buy things from Israel. "Every western example rests on a defined wrong" is an absolutely insane sentence to write.
The West is just pissy because they want every opportunity to do exactly what the law is restricting: to promote ethnic divisions to create dissent and instability. It's a pretty standard playbook at this point, though if you live in the kind of delusions where "every Western example rests on a defined wrong" I suppose it's easy enough to ignore historical examples of that.
"If I don't have the right to promote racial divisions to undermine class solidarity, then what rights do I even have!?"
This motherfucker using a whataboutism to explain how HIS whataboutism is immune from being pointed out 🙄🤦🏻
Absolutely correct.
Still doesn't make the Chinese law just.
You know who worry about "dissent and instability" enough to make laws specifically against it?
Tyrants and nobody else.
Do you know which people applaud such laws in spite of not being amongst the powerful people they're designed to protect?
Tankies, fascists, and other idiots prone to cheer their own oppression. Nobody else.
Lol what?
"Elon Musk is a shithead, that's why Albania's space program is the best in the world!"
"But Albania doesn't have a space program?"
"Whataboutism!"
That's not how anything works dude lmao. When the author says something blatantly false I'm allowed to call them on it.
Every single government that has ever existed since the dawn of time?
Sure. It doesn't entitle you to whitewash whatever the tyrants you prefer is doing, though.
THAT'S what you did and THAT'S textbook whataboutism.
Then again, it's pretty naive of me to expect a tankie to not defend the indefensible via a "but the west!" whataboutism deflection.
You guys are just as ridiculous as American Republicans.
It kinda does though? The author admits that his criticism would fall apart as hypocritical if the West did similar things, and the reality is that the West does worse things, so it is a pretty spurious criticism.
"Whataboutism" isn't even a real thing. Random internet people just started saying it one day but it has no logical basis. When looking at criticism of a particular country, obviously it's relevant whether other countries are doing similar things while only one country gets singled out for it.
For the sake of clarity, would you mind answering whether every government that has ever existed is "tyrannical" by your standards, or whether you think China is in some way exceptional based on something relavent to the article posted? What exactly have they done that is "indefensible," or do you just mean that government in general is indefensible?
That's false, though.
The West committing an injustice doesn't entitle China to commit the same injustice or another.
Someone relying on whataboutisms to deflect attention away from the misdeeds of their favorite tyrants WOULD say that, yes.
Whataboutism is a real thing and that real thing is a logical fallacy of avoidance of accountability via deflection.
Nope. That's grade A horseshit.
The term originated in 1970s Northern Ireland:
Hardly "random internet people
That's the thing: logical is exactly what pointing a whataboutism is.
It's a tu quoque fallacy used to manipulate the conversation away from a place that makes you uncomfortable by changing the subject to something you're more comfortable talking about, but which doesn't justify the thing you're trying to defend.
Not relevant to whether or not the particular country is wrong in doing so.
If I was on trial for embezzlement, tax fraud, and defrauding a charity, pointing out that Donald Trump has done all of those things would not be a viable legal defense.
Nope, that would require me to take it as a given that your ridiculous strawman argument has merit.
This law, which is a Chinese law, is exceptionally oppressive against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Chinese people who speak any of the 9 other Chinese language groups that aren't Mandarin, and rightfully criticize the Chinese government for anything ever.
The above paragraph is true whether or not any Western nation has passed any similarly oppressive laws.
As for your "singling out" claim, it's an article about a specific law that's recently passed and currently being enacted.
That's not singling out, that's reporting on current events.
Alright help me out here. Let's use an example.
A black man comes to a crosswalk and, after checking the road is clear, starts crossing even though he doesn't have the light. Suddenly, a cop rolls up, sirens blaring, and starts arresting him for jaywalking. While the arrest is ongoing, a white man starts walking across the street without the light and the cop does nothing. The man being arrested says, "This is bullshit! You're not doing anything about it when he does it!" The cop slams his face against the car and says, "Nice whataboutism, perp. You just committed a tu quoque fallacy. Just because someone else does something bad doesn't justify your own actions. In fact, I don't necessarily approve of what he's doing either. Now let's get you down to the station, punk."
Either "whataboutism" is just complete bullshit, or the vast majority of times it's invoked it's bullshit. The fact that a rule or criticism is applied selectively is extremely relevant. It's obvious in my example that the cop is just using the jaywalking as a pretext, but I'm not sure what the victim is supposed to say in that case in response that wouldn't make him an evil authoritarian tankie fascist, but whatever it is, just assume I said it to you because it's the same bullshit in both cases.
Yeah, because telling the court it's full of shit generally isn't the best legal defense. However, it would demonstrate that the court is not upholding it's principles consistently. It would be a valid logical and political argument to challenge the court as biased, it's just not the most practical when the court is the one making the arbitration.
You might be right. It wouldn't be singling out, except for the fact that the author specifically does single out China and claim that the West is innocent of similar crimes, which is why I said that calling me out on "whataboutism" would be even more spurious than usual in this case.
A lot of western disinformation being regurgitated here.
A lot that has been proven to be false quite awhile ago.
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/430738-egyptian-media-delegates-provide-a-detailed-insight-of-the-situation-in-xinjiang
https://tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Friendly_feudalism%3A_the_Tibet_myth
These newsites are going manic over china all of a sudden
Ok so obviously this sounds like a really bad law and based on what has been reported it's hard to feel like there's any justification. I will point out that nobody has actually printed the text of the law or the internal logic of why they felt that this law is necessary or beneficial. I will also point out that there isn't a single unbiased news source out there. Most Western news outlets are owned by billionaires who obviously have a vested interest in delegitimizing the Chinese system because they see communism as a threat. I haven't seen a pro Chinese source try to justify this law either.
Personally the way it's been depicted feels alarmist, but it's hard to tell whether the alarm is actually justified. They've lied about Chinese policy before. I don't trust the US media ecosystem to be honest about China.
China is communist now ?
Here is an English translation of China's Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, passed on March 12, 2026.
Most relevant to the article is Article 63:
So it effectively extends Chinese law to foreign countries.
You'll find numerous reports and statements published by non-U.S. media outlets, legal scholars, human rights organizations, and other experts from around the world.
Edit: Btw, the article is written by a Canadian researcher.
So I read through about half of it and skimmed the rest. Idk I guess the most problematic thing I found was this.
The rest of it reads like this
So as far as I can gather the only thing is they're making the official state language Mandarin and expecting minorities to be functional in Mandarin in order to deal with the state. And yeah that's certainly not a great position for a government to take. The rest of it reads like "we want all ethnicities to get along and be respected within the family of China"
Thanks for the resource friend. 😀