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