A new Chinese law that pledges to hold overseas individuals and organisations responsible for undermining ethnic unity is mainly intended to have a “deterrent effect”, according to analysts.

The law provides a new framework which analysts said was designed to counter Western ideological influence and provide a statutory mandate for assimilating minority groups.

They added that even if it proved hard to enforce overseas, its main weapon was psychological and political pressure.

“The significance of Article 63 lies less in its immediate enforceability abroad than in its deterrent effect,” said Peter T.C. Chang, a research associate at the Malaysia-China Friendship Association and former deputy director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya.

“Beijing is signalling that support for what it defines as ethnic separatism will no longer be treated as a purely domestic matter.”