London, 1 July 2026: China’s “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law”, adopted by the Chinese rubber-stamp parliament in March, comes into force today.

While China portrays the legislation as a mechanism for promoting “social harmony and national unity”, it effectively codifies policies of forced assimilation. Taken together with existing measures – including the expansion of state-run colonial boarding schools and other policies affecting Tibetan language, religion, education, and traditional ways of life – this law raises grave concerns about the long-term survival of Tibetan identity and may constitute a further step towards genocide.

Under illegal occupation by the People’s Republic of China since the 1950s, Tibet has been effectively closed off to the outside world. The Chinese government will now intensify its assimilationist policies over ethnic nationalities, like Uyghurs, Tibetans and Southern Mongolians, as mandated by the provisions of this law, and deliberately eliminate their distinctive identity.

One of the alarming provisions of the law, Article 63, states “organisations and individuals outside the [mainland] territory of the PRC that commit acts aimed at the PRC that undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic division are to be pursued for legal responsibility in accordance with the law”. The law’s extra-territorial overreach points to transnational repression, threatening Tibetans, Uyghurs and activists freely speaking up against the PRC on UK soil.

Tsering Yangkey, UK Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, said:

“This so-called Ethnic Unity and Progress Law with its alarming provisions to forcibly assimilate the ethnic nationalities, like us, Tibetans, into the majority Han culture, is legally wrong, morally bankrupt and practically unjust. Over the past 75 years, the Chinese Communist Party has tried everything to kill the Tibetan spirit, but has failed. This law cannot be allowed to succeed.”

Therefore, on behalf of the Tibetan diaspora in the UK, we respectfully call on the UK government to:

• Formally convey to the Chinese Government your strong opposition to the law, reject its implementation and call for its repeal.

• Request relevant United Nations bodies and mechanisms to urgently review the PRC’s assimilation policies and employ all available international instruments to prevent further violations of cultural, linguistic, and religious rights.

• Undertake comprehensive investigations, through your diplomatic missions, into the individuals and institutions responsible for designing and implementing these policies, and consider the use of appropriate accountability tools, including targeted sanctions.

• Exert diplomatic pressure on Beijing to peacefully resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict through genuine, mutually respectful dialogue.

• Support the efforts of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in the preservation and promotion of Tibetan culture and identity in exile while exposing and countering this deliberate erasure of Tibetan identity in Tibet.