Western media say it's assimilation. Here's what the law says.

China has passed the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which takes effect on July 1, but some Western media outlets have distorted it as a tool for "cultural assimilation" and even claimed it could pave the way for "forced labor".

At a high-level press briefing in Beijing, officials addressed the questions directly. Here are the key takeaways.

·"The promotion of the national common language and script is not incompatible with the learning and use of ethnic minority languages and scripts. The two should not be seen as opposites."

·About Xinjiang: Encouraging cross-regional employment is entirely based on personal will. The so-called "forced labor" is utterly absurd.

·About Xizang: Attending boarding schools is a matter of family choice. And in a vast, mountainous region, boarding schools can make education more accessible. Without them, some children would have to travel for hours every day just to get to class.

·About Article 63: The "long-arm jurisdiction" claim doesn’t hold up; it applies to overseas entities only when their actions target China and undermine ethnic unity, progress, or promote separatism.