Press Release – For immediate release
10 March 2019
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress and the Uyghur people stand in solidarity and friendship with the Tibetan people on the 60^th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising of March 10, 1959. The Tibetan National Uprising Day commemorates the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the Chinese Communist Party’s occupation in Tibet.

The uprising was ultimately quashed by Chinese forces and was followed by a violent crackdown on the Tibetan people and the flight of the Dalai Lama into exile. Ensuing decades have seen the Chinese Communist Party brutally suppress the Tibetan people, deprive them of their basic rights and try to totally assimilate the Chinese people.

The parallels between recent history and issues facing the Uyghur and Tibetan people are unmistakable. Uyghurs and Tibetans are ethnically distinct people in terms of language, history, religion and culture, and have been viewed as a threat by the Chinese Communist Party and have been brutally repressed for decades. Calls from the Tibetan and Uyghur communities to have their voices heard and their human rights respected or any expressions of dissent have been consistently met with violent responses from the Chinese government. In 2008, Tibetans observing National Uprising Day in Lhasa and protesting against China’s treatment of the Tibetan people were brutally quashed, with numerous fatalities reported. Just over a year later, Uyghurs demonstrating in Urumqi and expressing their frustration over discriminatory policies were similarly suppressed, with many fatalities and countless enforced disappearances.

The Uyghur and Tibetan people have been brought together by decades suffering, but now both peoples face a dire future. Under the rule of Xi Jinping, the situation has deteriorated so dramatically that now both are concerned about their continued existence as ethnically distinct peoples. The Chinese government has been taking active steps to erode the language, culture, religion and history in a campaign of total cultural assimilation. It is now largely impossible for Uyghurs and Tibetans to engage in basic cultural or religious activities that they have done for decades. Children in particular have been targeted with political indoctrination, as the Chinese government attempts to stamp out any links to their ethnic identities among the younger generations.

There is now a feedback loop of repression between East Turkistan and Tibet. Chen Quanguo, the CCP’s Party Secretary for East Turkistan, who is largely responsible for the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs has implemented an oppressive, technologically-driven system of security and surveillance and first pioneered these systems in Tibet. After succeeded in crushing dissenting voices in Tibet, he was tasked to do the same in East Turkistan. Now, new tools of repression and control being perpetrated against the Uyghur people are in turn being used against the Tibetan people. In this way, the CCP’s policies of repression and assimilation have intertwined the fates of Tibet and East Turkistan.

The WUC therefore stands with the Tibetan people in their struggle for human rights and democracy. At this critical time for the future of the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and all those in China who are persecuted merely for exercising their basic rights, there is a need for greater solidarity and unity. The WUC wishes Tibetans all over the world success in their planned demonstrations and events on this important anniversary and look forward to deeper cooperation and solidarity in the future.