Washington, D.C.: On Wednesday, 24 June, a bipartisan resolution, S.Res. 791, was introduced in the United States Senate to condemn China’s “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.” The resolution was submitted by Senator Jacky Rosen, along with Senators Jeff Merkley, John Curtis, and Jim Banks, and was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The resolution condemns China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which entered into force on 1 July 2026, and calls on Beijing to end abuses against ethnic and religious minorities, as well as campaigns of transnational repression affecting people in the United States.

The resolution highlights that the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees specified rights, including freedom of religious belief and the right of people regarded as minorities to use their own spoken and written languages and preserve their cultural traditions. China is also a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Despite these constitutional and international commitments, the resolution finds that Chinese authorities have systematically imposed policies that displace ethnic and religious minority communities, separate Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools, limit the use of minority languages, curtail religious practice through intrusive state controls, and compel conformity with ideology mandated by the Chinese Communist Party.

These policies have threatened the rights and freedoms of a broad range of communities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other ethnic and religious groups across China, as well as the people of Hong Kong, whose civil liberties and autonomy have been systematically eroded in recent years. The resolution further notes that Chinese Communist Party member Chen Quanguo first experimented with systematic surveillance, intimidation, detention, and draconian controls on expressions of religious and cultural identity in Tibet before expanding and accelerating those repressive techniques in Xinjiang.

Across its eight operative clauses, the Senate condemns the law, reaffirms support for affected communities, reiterates its 2021 genocide determination, calls for the law’s repeal, urges coordination with allied governments to monitor its effects, and asks the President to consider Global Magnitsky sanctions against responsible officials. The resolution also addresses the succession of the Dalai Lama, affirming that the decision belongs solely to Tibetan Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people, and calls on China to resume unconditional dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or His representatives.

– Report filed by Office of Tibet, Washington D.C.