(TibetanReview.net, Aug22’26) – China is cultivating a more repressive leadership in Tibet as it has begun implementing its forced assimilation policy there under the cover of its Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (Ethnic Unity Law), and ahead of the pivotal 21st Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2027. As a result, the seventh-generation leadership in Tibet will be shaped by two guiding principles that institutionalize centralized Party control and accelerate Beijing’s forced assimilation of Tibetans – the Ethnic Unity Law and Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building – said Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) as it released its 2026 Tibet Leadership Report on Aug 18.
Citing leadership appointments, the new legislation, and Party directives, the group says China is deepening political control over Tibet and accelerating its policies of forced assimilation of Tibetans amid a continued lack of any meaningful Tibetan representation in senior leadership positions.
The group notes that the Ethnic Unity Law is Beijing’s most significant legal codification of assimilation policies to date, expanding Party authority over education, language, religion and culture while accelerating the shift toward Mandarin-medium education and restricting space for Tibetan identity.
Drawing on new leadership data, the report finds that Tibetans remain largely excluded from positions of real political authority, with meaningful decision-making continuing to rest overwhelmingly in the hands of Chinese Party leaders.
“As of July 31, 2026, Tibetans hold only 62 of 240 (25.8%) senior leadership positions across provincial, prefectural, and county levels, while non-Tibetans occupy 178 (74.2%). The absence of Tibetans is most pronounced in the Party, security, military, and judicial institutions that exercise the greatest political authority.”
Referring to the absence of Tibetans in the higher echelons of the CCP leadership, the report refers to the fact that in the powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD), which oversees Beijing’s Tibet policy, there has not been a Tibetan at the senior leadership level since Sithar (Si Ta) retired as Vice Minister in 2016.
In this scenario, the Ethnic Unity Law further weakens the protections nominally guaranteed under China’s regional ethnic autonomy system. Its implementation is expected to accelerate President Xi’s assimilation move and leave future Tibetan leaders with little scope to uphold the autonomous rights guaranteed under the Constitution and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, the report says.
The report says currently, the highest CCP leadership positions in the Tibetan areas are held by non-Tibetans, and there is no indication that Tibetans will assume leadership positions in the coming years.
The report notes that in the current, 20th Party Congress, Yan Jinhai (born 1962), former Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Chairman and current Chair of the TAR People’s Congress, is the only Tibetan in the CCP Central Committee. Karma Tseten (Chinese: Gama Cedain, born 1967), Phurbu Dhondup (Pubu Dunzhu, born 1972), and Tsering Thar (Cering Tar, born 1969) are the only three ethnic Tibetans in the 171 alternate members of the 20th Party Central Committee.
(Based on savetibet.org report Aug 18, 2026)