China passes new ethnic minority law, prioritises use of Mandarin language. By Reuters.

China passed a law on a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic ‌minority groups on Thursday, a move critics say will further erode the identity of people who are not majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone challenging that “unity” a separatist punishable by law. …

Officially, China has 56 ​officially recognised ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, who account for more than 91% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

China’s ethnic minority ​populations — including Tibetans, Mongols, Hui, Manchus, and Uyghurs — are concentrated in regions that together cover roughly half of the country’s land area, much of it rich in natural resources. …

The law … mandates ​that Mandarin is the basic language of instruction in schools, and for government and official business.
In public settings, where Mandarin and minority languages ​are used together, Mandarin must be given “prominence in placement, order, and similar respects.”

Is Taiwan part of China? David Archibald reports: