diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
@@ -222,16 +222,19 @@ Some smaller changes made to the core Py
 
 * Added the ``'namereplace'`` error handlers.  The ``'backslashreplace'``
   error handlers now works with decoding and translating.
   (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`19676` and :issue:`22286`.)
 
 * The :option:`-b` option now affects comparisons of :class:`bytes` with
   :class:`int`.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`23681`)
 
+* ``() = []`` is now a valid assignment. Previously, it raised a
+  :exc:`SyntaxError`.
+
 
 New Modules
 ===========
 
 .. _whatsnew-zipapp:
 
 zipapp
 ------
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tuple.py b/Lib/test/test_tuple.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_tuple.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tuple.py
@@ -211,10 +211,16 @@ class TupleTest(seq_tests.CommonTest):
     def test_lexicographic_ordering(self):
         # Issue 21100
         a = self.type2test([1, 2])
         b = self.type2test([1, 2, 0])
         c = self.type2test([1, 3])
         self.assertLess(a, b)
         self.assertLess(b, c)
 
+    def test_empty_tuple_assignment(self):
+        () = []
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError,
+                                    'too many values to unpack \(expected 0\)'):
+            () = [0]
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/Python/ast.c b/Python/ast.c
--- a/Python/ast.c
+++ b/Python/ast.c
@@ -913,23 +913,18 @@ set_context(struct compiling *c, expr_ty
             }
             e->v.Name.ctx = ctx;
             break;
         case List_kind:
             e->v.List.ctx = ctx;
             s = e->v.List.elts;
             break;
         case Tuple_kind:
-            if (asdl_seq_LEN(e->v.Tuple.elts))  {
-                e->v.Tuple.ctx = ctx;
-                s = e->v.Tuple.elts;
-            }
-            else {
-                expr_name = "()";
-            }
+            e->v.Tuple.ctx = ctx;
+            s = e->v.Tuple.elts;
             break;
         case Lambda_kind:
             expr_name = "lambda";
             break;
         case Call_kind:
             expr_name = "function call";
             break;
         case BoolOp_kind: