China's Ethnic Unity Law - Codifying Transnational Repression

China’s new Ethnic Unity Law raises a troubling question: how far can Beijing’s reach extend beyond China’s borders? Under President Xi Jinping, repression of China’s ethnic and religious minorities has intensified for more than a decade. The treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Tibetans and other minority communities has been accompanied by growing restrictions on language, culture, religion and political expression. Now, China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which came into force on July 1st, 2026, takes that trajectory a step further. Beijing says the law is intended to strengthen ethnic unity and create a shared national identity. Critics argue that it further institutionalises assimilation and gives the Chinese Communist Party greater control over the cultural and religious identity of China’s minorities. But there is another significant dimension. The law contains provisions concerning organisations and individuals outside China who are deemed to undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division — raising concerns about its potential use as a tool of transnational repression. So what does the new law actually mean? How does it fit into Xi Jinping’s broader policies towards China’s ethnic minorities? And what could its extraterritorial provisions mean for people outside China who speak out about human rights abuses? In this episode, I speak with Dr David O’Brien, an Irish anthropologist who has spent years working in China and is now a lecturer at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. We examine China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, its implications for Uyghurs, Tibetans and other ethnic minorities, the tension between the law and China’s constitutional framework, and how the legislation could further codify transnational repression. What happens when a government attempts to extend its definition of “ethnic unity” beyond its own borders — and what does that mean for freedom of expression and human rights? ./ ./ Audio Credits: Intro music: Suspense by ArctSound via Pixabay UN speech excerpts - Audio provided by the United Nations / UN Geneva Multimedia Newsroom