China yesterday passed a law on a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, a move critics say would further erode the identity of people who are not majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone challenging that “unity” a separatist punishable by law.
The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress 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 was passed at the closing session of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, by 2,756 votes, with three opposing votes and three abstentions, a witness said.
Photo: Reuters
The law is to come into force on July 1, state media reported.
Officially, China has 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, who account for more than 91 percent of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
China’s ethnic minority populations — including Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchus and Uighurs — are concentrated in regions that together cover about half of the country’s land area, much of it rich in natural resources.
The law aims to promote integration across ethnic groups through education, housing, migration, community life, culture, tourism and development policy, the law said.
It mandates that Mandarin is the basic language of instruction in schools, and for government and official business.
In public settings, where Mandarin and minority languages are used together, Mandarin must be given “prominence in placement, order and similar respects,” the draft said.
“The state respects and protects the learning and use of minority languages and scripts,” it added.
Religious groups, religious schools and religious venues must adhere “to the direction of the Sinicization of religion in China,” the draft said.
The law also seeks to ban any interference with marriage choices based on ethnicity, custom or religion, to enable more intermarriage between ethnic groups.
Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, said the law underlined a move toward assimilation.
“The law makes it clearer than ever that in [Chinese] President Xi Jinping’s [習近平] PRC [People’s Republic of China] non-Han peoples must do more to integrate themselves with the Han majority, and above all else be loyal to Beijing,” he said.
Ethnic affairs are incorporated into China’s social governance system, with clauses that include anti-separatism, border security, risk prevention and social stability.
Organizations and individuals outside China that carry out acts against the country “that undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic separatism shall be pursued for legal liability in accordance with the law,” the draft said.
“The law stresses the protection of cultural traditions and lifestyles of all ethnic groups... it is misleading to claim that ethnic minorities in China must choose between economic development and cultural preservation,” an editorial in the state newspaper China Daily said.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
RSS