China set to pass new ethnic minority law, prioritise use of Mandarin language
BEIJING: China is expected to pass a law on a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups on Thursday (Mar 12), a move critics say will further erode the identity of people who are not the majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone challenging that “unity” a separatist punishable by law. Called “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress”, the ethnic minority law aims to forge national unity and advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at its core, a draft copy of the law showed. It is due to be passed at the closing session of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature. Officially, China has 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, who account for more than 91 per cent of the country’s 1.4 billion people. China’s ethnic minority populations – including Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchus, and Uyghurs – are concentrated in regions that together cover roughly half of the country’s land area, much of it rich in natural resources. …
