Washington — U.S Senator Jacky Rosen,Jeff Merkley, John Curtis, and Jim Banks, introduced a Bipartisan Resolution on the China's “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law” in US Senate on June 24, 2026. 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 highlighted human rights violations in Tibet, the forced placement of more than one million Tibetan children in colonial-style boarding schools; it also emphasized that the Chinese authorities are violating the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and international law. It further detailed how the Chinese Communist government imposes repressive policies—both old and new—on Tibetans in Chinese-occupied Tibet; as well as the Sinicisation of the Tibetan language, culture, and religion; the People’s Republic of China’s attempt to control the reincarnation of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet; and China’s Ethnic Unity Law, which undermines the unity of minority groups.
The resolution states, "Condemning the People's Republic of China's Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, concerned with its implications on the rights and freedoms, as well as survival of the identity, of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and other affected communities, and calling on the Government of the People's Republic of China to end its abuses and campaigns of transnational repression that undermine United States sovereignty and threaten the safety and freedoms of people in the United States.
"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. The People's Republic of China is a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"Chinese authorities have systematically imposed policies that displace ethnic and religious minority communities, separate Tibetan and Uyghur 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.
"The policies of the People's Republic of China 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 July 1, 2026, entry into force of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law of the People's Republic of China institutionalizes and expands coercive assimilation and cultural erasure policies directed toward Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other groups.The Ethnic Unity and Progress Law codifies the Chinese Communist Party's campaign of "Sinicization," requiring schools, religious institutions, families, media, and cultural organizations to align their activities with Party-mandated ideology.
"The Ethnic Unity and Progress Law criminalizes expression deemed to "undermine ethnic unity" or "create ethnic division", the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law contains extraterritorial provisions authorising Chinese authorities to pursue "legal responsibility" for individuals and organizations outside China, which includes United States citizens who "undermine ethnic unity" or challenge the Chinese Communist Party's official historical narratives."
"The Ethnic Unity and Progress Law expands state authority over religious institutions in ways that threaten the ability of Tibetan Buddhist leaders to determine matters of religious tradition, including the succession of the Dalai Lama; and the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law represents a grave escalation in the campaign of the People's Republic of China to suppress ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic diversity and, when combined with the Chinese Government's expanding campaigns of transnational repression, illegal overseas police operations, and extraterritorial claims of authority, poses a growing threat to the United States and its allies.
Resolved, That the Senate-
(1) condemns the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law for institutionalizing coercive assimilation, cultural erasure, and ideological control over ethnic and religious minorities in the People's Republic of China;
(2) reaffirms support for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Hui Muslims, Christians, and other ethnic and religious communities in the People's Republic of China;
(3) reaffirms the 2021 determination of the United States Department of State that the Government of the People's Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Turkic people,
(4) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of China to repeal the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law;
(5) urges the United States Department of State to work with allies and partners, including the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, to monitor and report on the impacts of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and on going transnational repression carried out by the People's Republic of China;
(6) calls on the President to evaluate and consider targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10101et seq.) against individuals and entities responsible for, complicit in, or directly benefiting from gross human rights violations that result from implementing the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and related laws and policies;
(7) recognizes the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration for their longstanding commitment to nonviolence and dialogue and reaffirms that, in light of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law's expansion of state authority over religions institutions, decisions regarding the reincarnation or succession of the Dalai Lama are solely the prerogative of Tibetan Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people, free from interference by the Government of the People's Republic of China, as outlined in the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020; and
(8) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of China to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives in order to hold substantive discussions aimed at resolution of the Sino-Tibetan disputes at an early date, without preconditions.
