BRUSSELS, July 2 (Reuters) – The European Union expressed concern on Thursday about China’s new law on ethnic unity which went into effect this week and gives Beijing the legal basis to take action against people outside its borders.
China passed the law in March to create a “shared” national identity among the country’s 55 ethnic minority groups, which include Tibetans and Uyghurs, some of whom chafe under Chinese rule and have over the years often staged protests, some of them violent.
The new law, which went into effect on Wednesday, includes a clause saying people and groups beyond the borders of the People’s Republic of China can be held legally accountable for undermining “ethnic unity and progress or inciting ethnic separatism”.
In a statement, an EU spokesperson said the new law may further restrict the cultural, linguistic and religious rights of ethnic minorities.
Such rights should be upheld in line with international human rights standards and China’s commitments within the U.N. framework, the spokesperson added.
“We are concerned about the extraterritorial application of the law. The EU opposes the extraterritorial application of third-country legislation in breach of international law,” the spokesperson said.
“We call on any third country to refrain from attempts to conduct transnational repression within the European Union or elsewhere.”
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A senior Chinese official said last week that the government has a right to hold accountable people outside of its borders who contravene the law, adding that this was in line with international practice, and was legal and necessary.
Rights groups have previously complained that China has tried to used Interpol “red notices” to try and get foreign governments to arrest people abroad it wants for political offences at home.
The law has also sparked alarm in Chinese-claimed Taiwan in particular that it could give Beijing another legal basis to go after Taiwanese it views as separatists.
In a separate statement on Thursday, Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said the government will work with like-minded countries “to resist the Chinese communists’ threats”.
“This is intimidation and coercion through malicious transnational repression,” it added.
China’s legal system has no jurisdiction or authority in Taiwan, whose government rejects China’s sovereignty claims.
(Reporting by Bussels newsroom; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, and Beijing newsroom, Editing by William Maclean)
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