WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (NY-05) and Representative Jim McGovern (MA-02) called on President Donald Trump to express the United States’ opposition to China’s sweeping new law to repress ethnic minorities and silence critics around the world, including U.S. citizens, during his meetings with President Xi Jinping at this week’s U.S-China summit. The Ethnic Unity and Progress Law grants Chinese officials broad authority to prosecute transnational dissidents as well as Tibetans, Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups that it classifies as detrimental to “national unity and Communist Party ideology.”
Xi’s visit to the U.S. is scheduled to begin on September 24. The State Department has previously expressed opposition to China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.
“During your meeting with Xi Jinping, it is imperative that you continue to voice your administration’s disapproval of this affront to the fundamental freedoms of minority communities, human rights advocates and U.S. citizens,” the lawmakers wrote to President Trump.
Enacted in March, the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law furthers the Chinese government’s efforts to systematically persecute ethnic and religious minorities and attack critics under the guise of protecting ‘social harmony.’
The law allows China to target dissidents around the world, including U.S. citizens living outside of China. In recent years, China has sought to silence pro-democracy voices through monetary bounties on Hong Kong advocates, cyberhacking campaigns and other intimidation tactics. Absent a repeal of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, the use of such tactics will only become more frequent.
“We greatly appreciated the State Department’s earlier statement expressing concerns about the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law,” the lawmakers continued. “A president’s personal advocacy, however, has unparalleled power to elicit meaningful change.”
The lawmakers specifically cited the case of Min Zin, a U.S. citizen detained in June while visiting China for an academic conference, to illustrate the government’s repressive practices. Min was an active voice for democracy in Southeast Asia. He remains in Chinese custody.
The Chinese government has a long and troubling history of subordinating and forcefully assimilating religious and ethnic groups that it deems a threat to state security. As the lawmakers noted, Chinese authorities have sought “to destroy the shrines of Uyghur Muslims, remove Tibetan Buddhist statues from monasteries, censor the holy texts read in Christian churches and otherwise purge houses of worship…”
Raskin, Meeks and McGovern are among the most vocal advocates in Congress for human rights around the world. They have sought and obtained the release numerous of prisoners of conscience, including through the Tom Lantos Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project, an effort to bring attention to international human rights abuses. Tibetan writer Kunchok Tsephel and Vietnamese climate activist Dang Dinh Bach—two political prisoners sponsored by Raskin—were later released from prison.
The letter is also signed by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (CA-11) and Representatives Jake Auchincloss (MA-04), Ami Bera (CA-06), André Carson (IN-07), Kathy Castor (FL-14), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Lloyd Doggett (TX-10), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Al Green (TX-09), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), George Latimer (NY-16), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), Grace Meng (NY-06), Jerry Nadler (NY-12), Richard Neal (MA-01), Eleanor Norton (DC-AL), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Brad Schneider (IL-10), Brad Sherman (CA-32), Tom Suozzi (NY-03), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Dina Titus (NV-01), James Walkinshaw (VA-11) , Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25) and Maxine Waters (CA-43).
The letter is endorsed by the International Campaign for Tibet, Uyghur Human Rights Project and Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.
Read the full letter here and below.
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Trump,
As you engage with President Xi Jinping this month, we urge you to express profound opposition to the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law recently implemented by the Chinese government.
This law grants Chinese authorities sweeping authority to prosecute Tibetans, Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups that it broadly accuses of undermining national unity and Communist Party ideology.
Moreover, the extraterritorial scope of the law means that it will dramatically accelerate China’s transnational repression of critics living in the U.S. The State Department has itself recognized these ramifications in a statement calling the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law “problematic.” During your meeting with Xi Jinping, it is imperative that you continue to voice your administration’s disapproval of this affront to the fundamental freedoms of minority communities, human rights advocates and U.S. citizens.
Enacted under the guise of promoting “social harmony” on March 12, 2026, the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law is in fact an insidious declaration of China’s intent to further repress religious freedom and the freedom of group association. One of the most troubling provisions of the law would require religious activities to undergo “Sinicization,” a process championed by Xi Jinping and used in reference to the complete subordination and assimilation of religious and ethnic groups to the political ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Well before the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law came into effect on July 1, 2026, China had already embarked upon a concerted campaign to destroy the shrines of Uyghur Muslims, remove Tibetan Buddhist statues from monasteries, censor the holy texts read in Christian churches and otherwise purge houses of worship in the name of “Sinicization.” With the additional legal cover provided by their new law, Chinese authorities are escalating their systemic persecution of minority faith communities.
Elsewhere in the text of the law, the Chinese government asserts the alarming power to extend its repressive tactics into U.S. borders and against U.S. citizens. Article 63 plainly states that organizations and individuals outside China will be held legally accountable for activities that China deems are undertaken in opposition to national unity and progress. In codifying this language, China thus purports to exercise jurisdiction over people who are neither Chinese citizens nor residents of the country and who are merely exercising their freedom of expression. For dissidents who fled China in pursuit of the rights and freedoms we enjoy in America, the clause amounts to a promise that they will continue to be pursued by an oppressive state adamant about suppressing their speech and beliefs.
To grasp the consequences of such a promise, one need only examine the tactics China has increasingly deployed against its U.S.-based critics, including U.S. citizens. In the last couple of years alone, the federal government determined conclusively that Chinese officials intimidated student activists who spoke out against its rule, imposed monetary bounties on Hong Kong activists, launched a cyber-hacking campaign targeting dissidents and employed other sophisticated strategies to silence pro-democracy voices in the U.S. Just this summer, Chinese authorities detained Min Zin, a U.S. citizen and doctoral candidate, upon his arrival in the country for an academic conference. Today, Min Zin, who actively promoted democratization in Southeast Asia, remains in Chinese custody. Absent robust efforts to contest the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, he will be just one of many more targeted U.S. citizens.
Min Zin’s story, along with the broader trends indicating an intensification of China’s crackdown on religious minorities and dissent abroad, should serve as a warning to us all. If left in place, the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law will expedite ongoing transnational repression, religiously motivated and identity-based persecution and other anti-democratic maneuvers of the Chinese government. In fact, emerging evidence suggests that China has actively begun to leverage the measure against the communities it has historically sought to marginalize. Uyghur-language signs are reportedly being removed from city streets, and during a recent tour of Tibet, a top CCP leader pressed authorities to “adapt” Tibetan Buddhism in accordance with the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.
We greatly appreciated the State Department’s earlier statement expressing concerns about the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law. However, a president’s personal advocacy has unparalleled power to elicit meaningful change. During your upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping, we therefore urge you to ask for the repeal of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.
At stake are our national security, sovereignty and basic human rights all over the world.
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