Beijing, March 15 (AHN) China is increasingly restricting the minority autonomy in education, language, and religion through both political campaigns and legal reforms. By codifying assimilation policies into law, Beijing is entering a new stage of frontier governance -- one aimed not just at managing ethnic diversity but fundamentally reshaping it, a report said on Sunday.

"In recent years, the Chinese government has intensified policies in Tibetan areas that aim to reshape Tibetan identity through language, education, and cultural control. These measures are not isolated administrative actions, but part of a broader national strategy centred on what Beijing calls 'forging a strong sense of the Chinese nation community'," a report in online international magazine The Diplomat detailed.

Under this framework, the report said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to "strengthen a unified national identity by weakening ethnic identities that might compete with the political narrative of the 'Chinese nation'."

"Increasingly, these assimilationist policies are not merely administrative practices; they are being codified into law," it added.

According to the report, for decades, the Chinese authorities exerted tight political control over Tibet, especially over Tibetan Buddhism and religious institutions. The situation, however, began to change dramatically since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office.

"Under the banner of achieving the 'great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,' Beijing increasingly began to view minority languages -- including Tibetan -- as potential threats to national unity. The policy shift reflects a deeper transformation in China's ethnic governance doctrine," it mentioned

The report noted that the 'Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law', which was passed during the annual session of the National People's Congress of China on March 12, further reinforced Beijing's assimilationist framework towards ethnic minorities.

"Based on a draft version, the legislation requires that preschool children begin learning Mandarin and mandates that students 'basically master the national common language by the end of compulsory education'. At the same time, it weakens provisions in the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law that previously protected minority language rights," it stressed.

"The law also introduces provisions that allow authorities to pursue legal responsibility for individuals overseas accused of 'undermining ethnic unity'. Such clauses extend the reach of China's ethnic policy beyond its borders and further integrate identity issues into the country's national security framework," it noted.

Citing a 2026 report, The Diplomat stated that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues warned that Beijing's systematic restrictions on minority language education could result in "linguistic erasure" and pose a serious risk to cultural heritage.

The UN report noted that "policies designed to eliminate a language from public life may approach what international law describes as cultural genocide".