Dharamshala — The new Chinese law recently adopted by the People's Republic of China, which targets the Tibetan language, identity, culture, and religion as part of a policy of Sinicization, mandates the assimilation of Tibetans into Chinese culture through parents, monasteries, and public institutions; it will take effect on July 1, 2026.
The National People's Congress (NPC) passed a law on March 12, 2026, titled “Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Progress in the People's Republic of China (PRC).” This law reinforces policies of “Sinicization” and “assimilation,” particularly with regard to Tibetans and other oppressed peoples of Mongolia and East Turkestan. It mandates the Sinicization and assimilation of the Tibetan people, using parents, monasteries, various social organizations, and state institutions as instruments of implementation; the law is scheduled to officially take effect on July 1, 2026.
The new law aims to codify Xi Jinping’s policy on ethnic affairs, which promotes greater integration and cultural assimilation under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. It prioritizes the use of Mandarin in education, public services, and public life, thereby replacing previous policies that allowed instruction in minority languages such as Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian. It also requires religious practices to align with Han-centered Chinese cultural norms and socialist values through the “Sinicization” of religion.
The law also requires parents and teachers to indoctrinate children so that they “love the CCP and China as a nation” and “internalize the idea that the Chinese people form one big family,” while warning against any attempt to instill in children concepts related to their own Tibetan culture, religion, and customs. It forces Tibetan parents to perform additional tasks during their children’s summer and winter vacations.
The Chinese new law further encouraged the inter-ethnic marriage, which aims to marry Tibetans and other ethnic people to Han Chinese and make their wives, husbands and children into Chinese.
Article 2 of the new law imposes the ideas of Chinese leaders such as Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Xi Jinping on the population, particularly on Tibetan children and Tibetans. The law also requires the population to raise Chinese flags and display Chinese cultural symbols everywhere, even among truck drivers working in the field. It recently banned Tibetan cultural symbols such as thangkas and hats, which shows that the Chinese government is deeply insecure and is trying to physically demonstrate that these people are citizens of the nation, yet it fails to impose Chinese culture on Tibetans, no matter what methods are used.
Article 5 of the new law states: “All citizens of the People’s Republic of China are equal before the law. All ethnic groups in the People’s Republic of China are equal. Any discrimination or oppression against an ethnic group is prohibited,” however, Tibetans and other oppressed peoples are constantly subjected to discrimination in their professional lives, at their workplaces, when traveling, at school, and even when trying to book a hotel room, as hotels refuse to accommodate Tibetans.
Article 15 of the law requires Tibetans to “fully promote the use of the nation’s common language (Mandarin) and script” and stipulates that “the use of the nation’s common language and its script shall not be obstructed by any organization or individual.” It forces Tibetans and other oppressed peoples to learn and use the Chinese language and script, and to abandon their own language and script.
This article stipulates that schools and other educational institutions must use the Chinese language and script as the primary language of instruction; this forces teachers and students to learn Chinese without any alternative and compels them to do so; it aims to make Tibetans and other non-Chinese populations lose their language, culture, and religion, and to assimilate them into Chinese culture.
Article 20 of the law compels Tibetan parents to instill in their children thougts such as “love for the Chinese Communist Party, the motherland, the people, and the Chinese people,” and to encourage them to embrace the idea that the Chinese people form one single family; it also prohibits teaching Tibetan children their own language, culture, and religion, which constitutes a violation of their law and the fundamental rights of Tibetans.
Article 46 of the law requires Tibetan monasteries to carry out activities aimed at the Sinicization of Buddhism, to instill in Tibetan monks the communist ideas of Chinese leaders in the name of “patriotism,” and to promote “ethnic, religious, and social harmony.”
Article 60 of the law warns social groups, businesses, institutions, and other social organizations against any actions that could undermine the new law; if they do not cease such activities, they face penalties. It also warns these groups against any activity aimed at “dividing the nation”—an accusation often leveled against Tibetans who have organized peaceful protests against the Chinese government’s oppressive policies toward the Tibetan people, language, and religion.
Following the passage of this law, criticism was voiced by the international community, academics, and human rights organizations, who stated that the law constituted an instrument of “forced assimilation” that could infringe upon the cultural, linguistic, and religious rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Inner Mongolians. Some see this as a reversal of previous policies that granted only nominal regional autonomy.
Even before the new Chinese law officially took effect, Chinese authorities in Tibetan regions had already begun removing Tibetan-language signs from school gates, shops, and offices as early as March 15, 2026. These actions are evidence of the illegal and ruthless measures taken by the Chinese authorities against the Tibetan people, their language, culture, and religion, and are aimed at erasing Tibetan identity.
