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Congressional Daily Record
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July 6, 2026
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Download official Extensions PDFReturn to issue contextHON. JAMES P. McGOVERN
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Mr. McGovern. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article written by Richard Gere, who is an actor and chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.
June 28, 2026
China's `Ethnic Unity' Law Means Repression Without Borders
To see where this leads, look at Tibet, where Beijing perfected its
system of social control
(By Richard Gere)
China will begin implementing one of the most
consequential—and least noticed—laws of Xi Jinping's era on
July 1, days before the Dalai Lama's 91st birthday. The
Ethnic Unity and Progress Law may not seem threatening. It
refers innocuously to “unity,” “social harmony” and a
“shared destiny.” Buried in its many provisions, however,
is something that should alarm every American: an explicit
mandate to pursue critics of Chinese policy wherever they
live, including here in the U.S.
Article 63 of the new law directs Chinese authorities to
act against organizations and individuals outside China for
any acts that “undermine ethnic unity and progress or create
ethnic division.” Beijing is plainly asserting the legal
authority to go after foreign citizens—Americans included—
for speech that the Communist Party deems threatening to its
narrative about Tibet, Xinjiang, or any religious or ethnic
minority group.
China has already gone to great lengths to monitor and
intimidate Chinese dissidents abroad. Last month a Bronx
resident and U.S. citizen, Lu Jianwang, was convicted of
acting as an illegal agent for China's Public Security
Ministry by operating a Chinese “police station” in
Manhattan. Prosecutors showed that Mr. Lu worked under orders
from Chinese officials to repress dissidents on American
soil. He faces up to 30 years in prison. The Ethnic Unity Law
now gives his actions explicit legal cover.
To understand where this leads, look at Tibet, which today
is inundated with police checkpoints, facial-recognition
technology and communications surveillance. Chinese Communist
Party cadres are embedded directly in villages and
monasteries, assigned to monitor Tibetan families and ensure
their political allegiance. Monks undergo “patriotic
education” campaigns. Writers face imprisonment, including
Tibetan author Gangkye Drubpa Kyab, who is serving a 14-year
sentence for “inciting separatism” and was previously
imprisoned for displaying a photograph of the Dalai Lama.
When Chen Quanguo—since subjected to U.S. sanctions for
human-rights violations—served as Communist Party secretary
in Tibet from 2011 to 2016, he developed what became known as
“grid management”—dividing communities into tightly
monitored units. When he transferred to Xinjiang in 2016, he
followed the same playbook, which evolved into mass
detention, predictive policing and one of the most advanced
systems of social control in the modern world.
The new law mandates Mandarin as the primary language of
education, government and social organizations. Despite
Beijing's denials, these provisions directly contradict
China's constitution, which guarantees different
nationalities within China the right to their own languages
and customs. The new law reinforces a system of colonial
boarding schools in which roughly one million Tibetan
children have already been separated from their families and
communities and subjected to communist indoctrination.
The new law requires that all religious activities support
“ethnic unity” and undergo “sinicization”—Mr, Xi's term
for subordinating religious traditions to Communist Party
ideology. For Tibetan Buddhism, in which language is
inseparable from culture and community, this amounts to
state-directed erasure. The stakes will be raised around the
succession of the Dalai Lama, likely one of the most
consequential religious and political flashpoints of the
coming decade. Beijing has already asserted that
reincarnations of Tibetan Buddhist leaders require state
approval. China is expected to appoint its own Dalai Lama and
use a variety of diplomatic and other tools to validate him
on the global stage.
U.S. policymakers should recognize the Ethnic Unity and
Progress Law for what it is: a declaration that Beijing's
ideological jurisdiction extends beyond its borders. This law
and the oppression in Tibet are at the fulcrum of the larger
struggle between liberty and autocracy.
Some 150 miles from the Tibetan border, in Dharamshala,
India, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile
stand as a vision of hope and inspiration to the rest of the
world. Emphasizing compassion and kindness, the Dalai Lama's
spiritual and moral leadership exemplifies the victory of
freedom and faith over autocracy and repression. It deserves
America's support.
In May, Reps. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) and Michael McCaul
(R., Texas) introduced the Assuring the Future of Tibet Act.
The bill would offer unprecedented support to the Tibetan
exile movement and the Central Tibetan Administration as the
genuine, democratically elected voice of the Tibetan people.
The legislation is a call for the U.S. and international
community to empower the Tibetan community as it defends its
identity and our collective freedom.
Tibet has long been treated as a distant concern. It isn't.
It is the place where the tools of modern authoritarian
control were first developed and refined—tools now pointed
outward. When Beijing moves to criminalize foreign criticism
of its ethnic policies, it is testing whether the
international community will accept the premise that no one,
anywhere, may challenge the party's preferred version of
history. That is a test the U.S. can't afford to fail.