(TibetanReview.net, Aug26’26) – The Kashag (Cabinet) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has on Aug 21 decided to observe the fourth week of every September as Tibetan Identity Preservation Week in response to China’s “Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law” (Ethnic Unity Law), which came into force on Jul 1. In this connection, it bears noting that in December last year, China passed a revised law which designated the third week of September every year as the week for a nationwide promotion of the standard spoken and written Chinese language.
Under its decision, the CTA will dedicate the week to “preserving and strengthening the unique linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage of the Tibetan people,” said its Tibet.net website Aug 27. The report said that China’s Ethnic Unity Law “fundamentally seeks to Sinicise the country’s 55 officially recognised ‘ethnic minority groups’—particularly those with distinct religious, cultural, and linguistic identities, such as Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, and Uyghurs—by subsuming them into the Han majority under the pretext of promoting ‘Zhonghua Minzu’” (meaning Chinese Nation in its grand, civilizational sense).
Th report condemned the law as a “systematic effort to erase the distinct identities of ethnic minority groups” that “not only violates international law concerning ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ but also fails to comply with the PRC’s own constitutional provisions concerning ethnic minorities, as stipulated in Article 3 and Section 6 of Chapter III of its Constitution.”
The Kashag’s decision is stated to be based on a resolution passed by the 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE) during its 11th session which mandated that “All Tibetan organisations and individuals residing in free countries shall, during the fourth week of September of each year, organise activities aimed at preservation and celebration of distinct Tibetan national identity.”
The Kashag’s decision was stated to have followed a discussion with the TPiE.
A notification issued by the Kashag calls on its Offices of Tibet and Settlement Officers, as well as Tibetan associations, Tibetan supporters, and advocacy groups worldwide to coordinate and organise appropriate awareness programmes and activities during the designated week, with a focus on preserving and promoting the Tibetan language, culture, heritage, values, and identity.
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Earlier, on Dec 27, 2025, China’s National People’s Congress (or parliament) passed a revised Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language and it came into force on Jan 1, 2026. The new law designated the third week of September as the week for a nationwide promotion of the standard spoken and written Chinese language.
It was suggested that in the ethnic minority areas, this week-long event will be used to demonstrate what percentage of their populations had attained proficiency in Mandarin during the period of the preceding year.
The standard spoken and written Chinese language is an important symbol of the nation, said China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Dec 27.
The revised law is designed to strengthen the promotion, standardization, and use of Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) and standardized Chinese characters across Chinese society — including education, public services, international events, and cyberspace. It also reinforces legal obligations and penalties related to language use, noted China’s party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
As report said the law has a dedicated chapter on legal liability and it specifies law enforcement departments and outlines penalties in detail. It cited the law as saying interference with others’ learning or use of the standard spoken and written Chinese language will be subject to criticism and education by relevant departments, along with orders for correction and warnings. Administrative penalties for public security violations shall be imposed if such acts constitute violations of public security management, the law was cited as saying.
The revised law stipulates that even international exhibitions, conferences and other events held within the PRC that use foreign languages for signs, labels, or promotional materials should also include the standard Chinese language, noted China’s state new agency Xinhua Dec 27.
The language law first took effect in 2001.