Press Release– For immediate release
30 September 2020
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or  [email protected]

October 1st marks two sad and important dates, the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). In 1949 the Chinese government militarily occupied East Turkistan. Six years later, the CCP officially founded the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on October 1st,1955. At the time, the Chinese government made lofty promises, assuring the Uyghur people that they would have meaningful autonomy and would be able to preserve their unique culture, language, history and religion. Similar promises were made to the Tibetan and Mongolian people. All of these promises were broken. On the 65th anniversary of the creation of XUAR, its legacy has been decades of subjugation, repression, forced assimilation and broken promises.

After the establishment of the PRC and later XUAR, the Chinese Communist Party put a number of provisions in its constitution to protect the rights of its citizens and to provide meaningful autonomy to Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians and other ethnic groups in the designated autonomous region. Basic rights, including the right to freedom of speech, freedom or religion, freedom of person, the right to vote, amongst others, are enshrined in articles 34-41 in China’s constitution. Autonomy and self governance for East Turkistan and other autonomous regions is outlined in articles 112-122 of the constitution. In the past 65 years, nearly every article mentioned has been systematically violated by the Chinese government.

Instead of the inclusive, participatory approach promised in its constitution, in the last 65 years, the CCP has acted as a colonial power, treating East Turkistan, Tibet and Southern Mongolia as territories to exploit and subjugate. During this time, Uyghurs have gradually had their rights and freedoms stripped away, their language, culture, religion and identity eroded and their humanity diminished. Freedom of expression, assembly and religion are virtually non-existent for Uyghurs now. Growing long beards, wearing Islamic veils and even owning a Quran have been banned. Thousands of mosques, shrines and graveyards have been destroyed. Children are not allowed to enter mosques or learn about religion. Despite the fact that the right to use native language is enshrined in article 121 of the Chinese constitution, use of the Uyghur language has been banned in many schools and camp detainees are forced to learn Mandarin. While the Chinese constitution (article 118) promised that the region would be in charge of its own local economic development, instead large Chinese companies have been extracting East Turkistan’s without the consent of the Uyghur people, deteriorating the environment in East Turkistan and excluding Uyghurs from any profits or gainful employment in the exploitation of their resources. Inequality between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the Uyghur homeland is rampant. 

Instead of giving Uyghurs a meaningful voice in the governance over their homeland, the Chinese government silenced Uyghur voices. The very few Uyghurs who have held positions of power in the government of XUAR were selected for their loyalty to the CCP. Rather than represent the Uyghur people, they were appointed to enforce CCP policy on the Uyghur people. This has led to a growing disconnect between the government and the Uyghur people, with Uyghurs having no voice in governing themselves and determining their own future. Instead of listening to Uyghur voices, the CCP has launched a campaign to imprison “two-faced” Uyghur officials and public servants, thereby detaining anyone who deviates from the official CCP narrative or who raises the legitimate concern of the Uyghur people. This has laid the groundwork for the atrocities Uyghurs are experiencing today.

Echoing colonial powers of the past, the Chinese government incentivized millions of Han Chinese settlers to move to the Uyghur region to change the demographics and to totally assimilate East Turkistan. In the past 3 years alone, 2 million new Han Chinese settlers were sent to East Turkistan, sometimes occupying the houses of Uyghurs who were sent to the internment camps. According to the 1953 census, 6% of the population was Han Chinese and 75% were Uyghur. In 2000, 40% of the population was Han Chinese and 43% were Uyghurs. Through incentivizing Han Chinese settlers to move to the region, the CCP is trying to take total control of the Uyghur homeland.

The repression and dehumanization of the Uyghur people over the past 65 years has resulted in the current crisis, which fits the UN definition for genocide. In the last three years, millions of Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in camps, Uyghur women have been sterilized and subjected to birth prevention procedures to diminish the Uyghur population, Uyghurs have been subjected to forced labour and modern slavery and the CCP has laucnhed a campaign attacking and eroding Uyghur culture, religion history and ethnic identity. The CCP has sought to fragment Uyghur society and recreate Uyghurs as loyal and pliant subjects to the government that is repressing them.

It is clear that the Chinese government sees the existence of the Uyghur people as a problem to solve, rather than human beings. CCP officials have frequently used the language of pathology, to describe Uyghur religious beliefs, culture and unique ethnic identity as “ideological illnesses”. The colonial and assimilatory strategy of the Chinese government has been focused on eroding and destroying the Uyghur identity and the CCP has exerted greater and greater control over the region, despite the promise of autonomy. It has reached the extent that East Turkistan is now one of the most strictly controlled areas on earth and has been described as a police state or a “no rights zone”.

“In the 65 years since the Chinese government imposed the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on the Uyghur people, the CCP has failed to keep any of their promises as our rights have been taken from us and our voices silenced,” said WUC President Dolkun Isa. “The legacy of this anniversary is one of genocide, colonialism and repression. The CCP has never treated Uyghurs as equal, but as colonial subjects to be assimilated and subjugated.”

In the 71 years that it has existed, the Chinese government has forsaken the principles and ideas it was founded on, and its own constitution, in the pursuit of absolute power and control. This is a very sad anniversary for the Uyghur people. All promises to the Uyghur people have been broken. Instead of granting autonomy, self-governance and human rights, Uyghurs are now experiencing a genocide.