China’s ethnic unity law is not a tool of transnational repression

China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, passed in March, takes effect this month. It stands alongside the 1984 Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy as a foundational, comprehensive statute on ethnic affairs, placing the task of forging a strong sense of community squarely within the legal framework.Yet voices abroad have rushed to brand it an act of “transnational repression” and “long-arm jurisdiction”, training their fire on Article 63.Such claims borrow from the vocabulary of law but cannot survive its scrutiny. Begin with what Article 63 actually says. It provides that organisations and individuals outside China who act to undermine China’s ethnic unity and progress, or create ethnic division, are to be pursued in accordance with the law. The operative verbs – undermine and create – describe conduct that inflicts harm; they do not go so far as to include policing of opinion.