McGovern, Smith, Khanna lead Bipartisan Group of 14 House Lawmakers Asking State Department to Condemn Chinese Government’s harmful “Ethnic Unity Law”

Washington, June 30, 2026

WASHINGTON—United States Congressmen Jim McGovern (D-MA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Ro Khanna (D-CA) today announced that a bipartisan group of 14 House lawmakers sent a letter asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio to condemn the People’s Republic of China’s Ethnic Unity Law as a tool of forced assimilation, ideological control, and transnational repression.

“Far from promoting genuine equality among ethnic groups, this law codifies and expands the Chinese Communist Party’s majoritarian campaign of forced assimilation against Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and other non-Han Chinese communities,” wrote the lawmakers in their letter. “We respectfully urge the Department of State to respond publicly and forcefully to this law before it goes into effect on July 1, 2026, and to make clear that the United States rejects the CCP’s attempt to disguise forced assimilation as “ethnic unity.”

The so-called Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress was adopted by China’s National People’s Congress on March 12, 2026, and goes into effect on July 1, 2026. The law contradicts and undermines the PRC’s own constitutional and legal guarantees of regional ethnic autonomy, and codifies and expands the CCP’s majoritarian campaign of forced assimilation against Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and other non-Han Chinese communities.

Specifically, the letter calls on Secretary Rubio to: 

  • Publicly condemn the law, raise it with PRC officials, and coordinate with like-minded governments to address it in bilateral dialogues, at the UN Human Rights Council, and through relevant UN treaty bodies and Special Procedures;
  • Prioritize the protection of Tibetan, Uyghur, Mongolian, and other minority-language education, religious freedom, and cultural preservation through U.S. policy and programming;
  • Strengthen U.S. efforts to counter PRC transnational repression; and
  • Strengthen enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and work with like-minded allies to expand enforcement.

The letter was also signed by Representatives Michael T. McCaul (R-TX), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Jonathan L. Jackson (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Johnny Olszewski, Jr. (D-MD), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), Thomas R. Suozzi (D-NY), and James R. Walkinshaw (D-VA). 

The full text of the letter is available here.