(TibetanReview.net, Jul04’26) –As political leaders, lawmakers, human rights groups and the UN rights experts kept up with their criticism of its so-called Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which came into force on Jul 1, with more joining in, China on Jul 3 accused the United states and the EU of interfering in China’s internal affairs.
At a regular press briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has accused them of “taking a biased view and maliciously smearing China’s ethnic policies,” as reported by China’s state news agency Xinhua Jul 3.
“The relevant countries have concocted and spread disinformation, blatantly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and undermined China’s ethnic unity. “China firmly opposes this,” the report quoted Guo as saying.
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Meanwhile there have been ever more protests, criticisms, and condemnations of this falsely titled ethnic assimilation law from across the democratic world.
On Jul 1. Cedric Jeanneret, Member of the Grand Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva strongly condemned the law, calling Jul 1 “a dark day” for the country’s ethnic minorities and cultural diversity. He warned that the legislation represented a serious assault on the cultural identities and constitutional rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and other non-Han peoples living under the People’s Republic of China, according to a Tibet.net report Jul 3.
Also on Jul 1, a spokesperson for the Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that it had raised concerns over the law directly with China and at the United Nations Human Rights Council as Tibetan communities across the country held protests, said another Tibet.net report Jul 3.
Several MPs raised the issue during the recently concluded 48th Australian Parliament sitting, while also criticizing China’s interference in the Dalai Lama reincarnation. A Tibet.net report Jul 3 said the MPs included Susan Templeman, co-chair of the Australian Parliamentary Friendship Group for Tibet and Senator Barbara Pocock, another co-chair of the group; as well as Andrew Wilkie; Andrew Wallace; and David Smith.
Ferenc József Gelencsér, Hungarian politician, former member of Parliament, and leader of the Momentum Movement, has expressed deep concern over the new Chinese law, warning its true purpose is not inclusion but the institutionalisation of forced assimilation, said yet another Tibet.net report Jul 3.
Earlier, on Jun 30, four Japanese Bipartisan Parliamentary Groups – the parliamentary group monitoring China’s human rights violations and the three parliamentary groups supporting Tibet, Uyghur and Southern Mongolia – organised a press conference in the Parliament building at Nagatacho, Tokyo, and issued a strong statement of concern on the law on Jun 30, said yet another Tibet.net report Jul 1.
On Jul1 especially, Tibetans held protest rallies in major cities of the democratic world, including before Chinese embassies and consulates such as in Geneva, Zurich, Canberra, Sydney, Auckland, Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Madrid, a per a number of Tibet.net reports.
The Brussels protest was addressed by several MEPs, including Dainius Žalimas, Chair of the Inter Parliamentary group for Tibet (IPGT); H Heide, co-chair of IPGT; Markéta Gregorová, Vice-Chair of the Parliament’s Delegation (D-CN) for Relations with China; Miriam Lexmann, Chair of the Intergroup on Freedom of Religion, Belief and Conscience; and Danuše Nerudová.