diff --git a/tests/unit/test_extract/test_ontology/test_entity_normalizer.py b/tests/unit/test_extract/test_ontology/test_entity_normalizer.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..290a1808
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/test_extract/test_ontology/test_entity_normalizer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+"""
+Unit tests for entity URI normalization.
+
+Covers ASCII behaviour and, critically, non-ASCII (e.g. Chinese) entity
+names and types, which must be preserved rather than stripped so that
+distinct entities do not collapse onto a single URI.
+"""
+
+import pytest
+from trustgraph.extract.kg.ontology.entity_normalizer import (
+    normalize_entity_name,
+    normalize_type_identifier,
+    build_entity_uri,
+    EntityRegistry,
+)
+
+
+class TestNormalizeEntityNameAscii:
+    """ASCII normalization must keep working as before."""
+
+    def test_lowercases_and_hyphenates(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("Cornish pasty") == "cornish-pasty"
+
+    def test_strips_punctuation(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("beef!!!") == "beef"
+
+    def test_collapses_and_trims_hyphens(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("  beef   stew  ") == "beef-stew"
+
+
+class TestNormalizeEntityNameUnicode:
+    """Non-ASCII names must be preserved, not stripped to empty."""
+
+    def test_chinese_name_preserved(self):
+        # Previously the ASCII-only filter deleted every CJK character,
+        # collapsing the name to "".
+        assert normalize_entity_name("苹果") == "苹果"
+
+    def test_chinese_name_with_space(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("有机 苹果") == "有机-苹果"
+
+    def test_distinct_chinese_names_stay_distinct(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("苹果") != normalize_entity_name("香蕉")
+
+    def test_mixed_ascii_and_chinese(self):
+        assert normalize_entity_name("iPhone 手机") == "iphone-手机"
+
+
+class TestNormalizeTypeIdentifierUnicode:
+    def test_ascii_prefixed_type(self):
+        assert normalize_type_identifier("fo/Recipe") == "fo-recipe"
+
+    def test_chinese_type_preserved(self):
+        assert normalize_type_identifier("食物") == "食物"
+
+
+class TestBuildEntityUriUnicode:
+    def test_distinct_chinese_entities_get_distinct_uris(self):
+        # This is the core regression: with ASCII-only normalization both
+        # names collapsed to the same URI, merging unrelated entities.
+        uri_apple = build_entity_uri("苹果", "水果", "food")
+        uri_banana = build_entity_uri("香蕉", "水果", "food")
+        assert uri_apple != uri_banana
+        assert uri_apple.endswith("苹果")
+        assert uri_banana.endswith("香蕉")
+
+    def test_uri_is_not_bare_prefix(self):
+        uri = build_entity_uri("苹果", "水果", "food")
+        # Must not collapse to ".../food/水果-" or ".../food/-"
+        assert not uri.endswith("-")
+
+
+class TestEntityRegistryUnicode:
+    def test_distinct_chinese_entities_not_deduplicated(self):
+        registry = EntityRegistry("food")
+        uri_apple = registry.get_or_create_uri("苹果", "水果")
+        uri_banana = registry.get_or_create_uri("香蕉", "水果")
+        assert uri_apple != uri_banana
+        assert registry.size() == 2
diff --git a/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/extract/kg/ontology/entity_normalizer.py b/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/extract/kg/ontology/entity_normalizer.py
index 093302a9..b47c50c3 100644
--- a/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/extract/kg/ontology/entity_normalizer.py
+++ b/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/extract/kg/ontology/entity_normalizer.py
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@ def normalize_entity_name(entity_name: str) -> str:
     # Replace spaces and underscores with hyphens
     normalized = re.sub(r'[\s_]+', '-', normalized)
 
-    # Remove any characters that aren't alphanumeric, hyphens, or periods
-    normalized = re.sub(r'[^a-z0-9\-.]', '', normalized)
+    # Remove any characters that aren't word characters (incl. non-ASCII
+    # letters such as CJK), hyphens, or periods. \w is Unicode-aware for
+    # str patterns in Python 3, so non-ASCII entity names are preserved
+    # rather than stripped (which would collapse them onto a single URI).
+    normalized = re.sub(r'[^\w\-.]', '', normalized)
 
     # Remove leading/trailing hyphens
     normalized = normalized.strip('-')
@@ -52,8 +55,10 @@ def normalize_type_identifier(type_id: str) -> str:
     # Replace slashes, colons, and spaces with hyphens
     normalized = re.sub(r'[/:.\s_]+', '-', normalized)
 
-    # Remove any remaining non-alphanumeric characters except hyphens
-    normalized = re.sub(r'[^a-z0-9\-]', '', normalized)
+    # Remove any remaining characters that aren't word characters (incl.
+    # non-ASCII letters such as CJK) or hyphens. \w is Unicode-aware for
+    # str patterns in Python 3, preserving non-ASCII type identifiers.
+    normalized = re.sub(r'[^\w\-]', '', normalized)
 
     # Remove leading/trailing hyphens
     normalized = normalized.strip('-')