CTA President Sikyong Penpa Tsering appealed to global bodies against China’s new ‘ethnic unity’ law, calling it a framework to assimilate Tibetans by weakening their culture and identity, and labeling it an element of genocide.
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President Sikyong Penpa Tsering, on behalf of the Tibetan people and Central Tibetan Administration, on Tuesday issued an urgent appeal to governments, foreign ministries, parliamentarians, think tanks, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) worldwide through official correspondence and virtual distribution, calling attention to the People’s Republic of China’s newly enacted “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.” Scheduled to take effect on 1 July 2026, the legislation, portrayed by Beijing as a measure to strengthen national unity and social harmony, instead provides a comprehensive legal framework for accelerating the assimilation of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities by weakening their distinct languages, cultures, religions, and identities in the name of “ethnic unity.”
‘Objective is to Destroy Tibetans’
Meanwhile, Sikyong also interacted with few media persons in North Indian hill town Dharamshala and said, “I was travelling in the last few weeks also because of this reason to create more awareness on nice sounding name, so called ethnic unity and progress law, but with a very objective of destroying Tibetans and Uyghurs and East Turkistani not just minorities or what they called nationalities in this region, but also other areas where people will be forced to speak only Mandarin.”
Answering to a query about whether there is any counter policy, Sikyong said, “Counter policy cannot come in one or two days; we have to assess the whole situation. These are policies, and policies need deliberation; it cannot come in one or two days. You need a lot of celebration to think about the impact and the implications of what China is doing. And now, from the 1st of July, there will be the implementation of this. We will also have to look at the implementation situation part and keep working on this. It is not just to end from July 1, it’s starting from July 1, so we’ll have to keep working with the governments to come out with whatever we can to counter China’s narrative on this and if necessary then we will come out with counter proposal… as I mentioned that nothing is going on right now to propose too but we have to internally think about what we need to do if there is an opening in future.”
‘Elements of Genocide’
Talking about the impact of this law on Tibet, Sikyong further said, “This has all elements of genocide, so it’s targeting Tibetan language, it’s targeting Tibetan religion, it’s targeting Tibetan culture, it’s targeting every aspect of Tibetan life. So every aspect of Tibetan life would be threatened. Tibetan nest would be removed if this is implemented for a long time… there won’t be Tibetans anymore, just the land, that’s also being renamed, so we will be making every effort to reach out to governments to create more awareness on this issue. On the 1st of July, we will be collecting a lot of statements from leaders from across the world as much as possible. We will be reaching out to the foreign offices of every country that we have an access to and press conferences will be organised, there will be protests and demonstrations in the different parts of the world and every Tibetan community needs to be galvanised on this issue in the times to come, not just on the 1st of July but in the months and years to come till they repeal this.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)