Tag: Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress

NPC 2026: China Enshrines Xi-Era Ethnic Policy in New Law

UPDATE (Mar. 12, 2026): We updated this post in accordance with the Law’s final text. The original version is archived here.

1957 propaganda poster depicting representatives of different ethnic minorities participating in a National Day parade on Tiananmen Square. The caption reads, “Long Live the Great Unity of Chinese People of All Ethnic Groups.” Original poster by Yang Junsheng. Photo via chineseposters.net. 🅮 Public domain.

On March 12, 2026, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) adopted the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (Law) [民族团结进步促进法]—designed to codify General Secretary Xi Jinping’s new orthodoxy for governing China’s ethnic minorities. That doctrine, known as the “Important Thinking on Improving and Strengthening Ethnic Work,” reflects the “Second-Generation Ethnic Policies” promoted by several prominent scholars. In a nutshell, this new “assimilationist” approach aims “not just to strengthen citizens’ sense of belonging to a larger, unified Chinese nation under the Party but also to mute expression of other—in the Party’s view, competing—identities.”

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NPCSC Session Watch: Environmental Code, Antarctic Policy, Ethnicity & Language, State Assets, Childcare, Banking Regulation & Trademarks

UPDATE (Dec. 22, 2025): The NPCSC has revealed that it will indeed submit the first three bills discussed below to the 2026 NPC session for approval and will pass the draft revisions to the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language and to the Foreign Trade Law on December 27.

Photo by Asya M (stock.adobe.com)

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its nineteenth session, its final meeting of the year, from December 22 to 27, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Monday, December 15. It will be the longest legislative session—lasting six days—since December 2019, with a suitably packed agenda. The NPCSC will review 14 legislative bills and hear almost two dozen reports, in addition to other business. As usual, we preview the session’s legislative agenda in detail below, while highlighting a few notable reports.

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NPCSC Session Watch (Extra): Ethnic Unity Law & Foreign Trade Law Overhaul

Mural of China’s ethnic minorities on display at the National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, Henan Province. Photo by Gary Todd. CC 0 1.0.

China’s national legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is holding its seventeenth session from today to Friday, September 12. As we have previewed, it is considering a whopping 16 draft laws, in addition to other agenda items. Today’s official readout of the session’s opening meeting reveals that the NPCSC is reviewing two other bills as well: a draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress [民族团结进步促进法] and a draft revision to the Foreign Trade Law [对外贸易法]. We will take a quick look at these bills below, based on latest state-media reporting. The caveat is that such reports are essentially condensed versions of the bill’s official explanation, which in turn presents a selective summary of the draft itself. Those interested should consult the original texts (of the drafts and their accompanying explanations) when they are released on Friday. Below, we will also provide an update on the other bills under review.

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