According to draft legislation released by the National People’s Congress, China is set to enact a new language law that will formally establish Mandarin Chinese as the primary medium for education and official communication nationwide. This legal framework will significantly restrict the use of minority languages such as Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian—languages that were previously allowed in certain regional and educational contexts—by limiting their role to secondary or elective subjects rather than as mediums of instruction for core academic disciplines. Official statements describe the measure as a step toward strengthening national cohesion, while human rights organizations and independent researchers warn that it may lead to the marginalization of minority languages and a reduction in linguistic diversity.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee is scheduled to approve a revised Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress this month, which will legally designate Mandarin (Putonghua) as the principal medium of instruction and official communication throughout China, including in historically multilingual regions that previously received limited bilingual accommodations.
This measure replaces prior legal frameworks that supported bilingual or mother-tongue education at the primary level.
Drafts of the legislation state that the reform aims to “forge a strong sense of community in the Chinese nation.” Officials characterize the initiative as essential to strengthening national cohesion and advancing President Xi Jinping’s vision of developing a unified “Chinese national community consciousness.”
According to state media and official communications, the law forms part of a larger project of modern state-building, guiding China from a historically multilingual context toward structural unity, positioning it as an effort to foster interethnic harmony and a shared national identity.
Critics, however, view the legislation as the latest phase of an accelerated Sinicization campaign under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Analysts and rights advocates argue that the policy seeks to assimilate the country’s ethnic minorities into the dominant Han cultural mainstream, diminishing linguistic and cultural plurality in the process.
The proposed law complements recent revisions to the National Common Language and Script Law, which took effect at the beginning of the year. The updated statute further elevates Mandarin’s status as the national language and expands language requirements into digital and public domains. It mandates the use of Mandarin as the basic language in network games and online content, while broadening enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with language norms.
Human rights organizations argue that cumulatively the laws amount to a structural reorientation of language policy and that, through the replacement of substantive bilingual education, minority languages risk being reduced to optional courses, weakening intergenerational transmission and community identity.
In Tibetan communities, where schools have traditionally provided instruction in both the Tibetan language and Mandarin, these policy changes may considerably reduce access to native-language education. Demoting Tibetan to an elective subject could not only lead to a generational gap, whereby younger Tibetans possess only limited proficiency in their mother language, but may even lead to the language’s demise.
While the new law does not legally apply to Hong Kong—it has not been added to Annex III of the Hong Kong Basic Law, which is the legal mechanism required for mainland laws to be enforced in the city—pro-Beijing lawmakers have suggested that Hong Kong should “voluntarily integrate” to strengthen national identity. The Hong Kong government follows a policy of biliteracy (Traditional Chinese Characters and English) and trilingualism (spoken Cantonese, Mandarin, and English).“ However, local authorities have been promoting the use of Mandarin and Simplified Chinese through local education and civil service requirements.