China’s National People’s Congress this week approved a sweeping new law titled the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress. Marketed by Beijing as a measure to foster “unity” among the country’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups, critics — both inside and outside China — warn that it represents a significant legal entrenchment of policies that have long sought to assimilate, suppress, and control ethnic and religious minorities across the country. Passed on March 12 and signed by President Xi Jinping, the new law will take effect on July 1.