China’s legal warfare against Tibet and the threat beyond its borders

The 2026 ‘Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress’ is a demonstration of how China operationalises the military doctrine of Three Warfares in the domestic legislative sphere. Using law to consolidate internal control, suppress the psychological will of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongolians to resist, shape the information environment through mandatory ideological messaging obligations on media and internet providers, and project coercive legal reach globally against perceived adversaries.

Its imposition follows another landmark exercise in legal warfare, the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL). Both laws deploy vague offence categories capable of expansive interpretation, long-arm extraterritorial jurisdiction, and the criminalisation of speech and advocacy abroad that would be entirely lawful in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. Beijing is systematically converting what began as an operational military concept into a permanent architecture of domestic and international legal coercion.

This report analyses the significance of this new development and why it matters, giving insights on impacts from Tibetans in Tibet.

China’s legal warfare against Tibet and the threat beyond its borders

Tibet Watch