Smears against ethnic unity law groundless: China Daily editorial

In a major step to strengthen national cohesion and social harmony, China's top legislature adopted the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law in March, which is set to take effect on Wednesday next week.

The law embeds the vision of fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation into the legal framework, advancing the law-based governance of ethnic affairs. Its core value lies in its ensuring the effective implementation of the regional ethnic autonomy system and its guarantee of efforts to promote high-quality development in ethnic regions. It is structured to promote interaction, exchanges and integration among the various ethnic groups, ensuring common prosperity and development. It directs governments to strengthen infrastructure, foster industrial growth, enhance public services and protect the environment, laying a comprehensive foundation for ethnic regions to thrive.

From 2012 to 2025, the gross domestic product of the five autonomous regions — Guangxi Zhuang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui, Xizang and Xinjiang Uygur — increased from 3.25 trillion yuan ($477.75 billion) to 8.66 trillion yuan, and public services in these regions have seen remarkable improvements. Xizang led the nation in providing 15 years of publicly funded education from kindergarten to high school since 2012, with similar programs in Xinjiang.

Yet some external forces are maliciously misinterpreting the law. For instance, the European Parliament has passed a resolution criticizing the law, groundlessly claiming it will intensify what it considers to be the "suppression" of ethnic peoples in the country. This absurd allegation doesn't have a leg to stand on as the law stipulates that upholding national unity and ethnic solidarity is the responsibility of all Chinese nationals, and it prohibits discrimination and suppression. While promoting the use of standard Chinese, the law strictly safeguards the right to study and use ethnic minority languages. This approach ensures cultural diversity is preserved while promoting national unity.

The baseless allegations of certain forces exist largely to sustain the illusion that they are "champions of human rights". Yet if they genuinely cared about the development and well-being of China's ethnic regions, they would not willingly serve as political brokers for anti-China forces. What makes their performance particularly absurd is that their rhetoric on China's ethnic affairs has barely changed in decades, while the regions they claim to care so much about have undergone profound economic and social transformation. The gap between their talking points and reality has grown wider with each passing year.

Notably the law stipulates that organizations and individuals outside China who engage in actions undermining ethnic unity and progress or inciting ethnic division will be held legally accountable. This clause can be applied to terrorist groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which are based overseas and pose a serious threat to the security of China's ethnic regions.

But some China naysayers pick fault with that clause, hyping it up as evidence proving their allegations. For them, opposition to China appears to be the only qualification needed to confer "moral legitimacy". When separatist, extremist and terrorist forces fomented unrest in Xinjiang and Xizang years ago, they went so far as to portray them as "freedom fighters". But when confronted with separatism, extremism or terrorism within their own borders, these politicians suddenly discover the language of "law and order". They demand that such actors be held accountable at once. This selective "morality" reveals a troubling double standard. To condemn the three forces at home while romanticizing them in the context of China is a distortion of "human rights".

China's ethnic regions will continue to preserve their cultural heritage and ethnic traditions that will be better safeguarded by the law. The regions are also embracing sustainable development, digital transformation and the artificial intelligence era. Against this backdrop, the recycled anti-China cliches resemble political caricatures divorced from realities on the ground.

The implementation of this law is purely China's internal affair. The legislative process was conducted in accordance with established legal procedures and was open, transparent and fully compliant with China's constitutional and legal framework. No external force has the right to use this legislation as a pretext for interfering in China's domestic affairs.